The staff of Hades
by bloodysnow23456
Summary: Nico goes on a quest with Percy, Annabeth, Leo and a bunch of OC characters to retrieve his Fathers staff, which, of course, is being used in a plot to overthrow the gods. Rated T for language and some adult themes.
1. Chapter 1

The staff of Hades:

Chapter one

The mental hospital

Caspia Kelly:

Hi. My name is Caspia Kelly. I'm 15 years old.

People will tell you I have mental problems. But don't listen to what they say. I'm not crazy. I just see things, but I know they're real. It seems like other people see them too, they notice them, but they must see them very differently.

Once I saw a black dog the size of a pickup truck, and this guy just walked over and petted him.

Another time I saw this vampire girl making out with this boy. One other time I was sure I heard my friend Daisy's voice down a sewer, calling to me for help. I didn't think it was really her, and I was right. As soon as I lost interest the voice changed. I could have sworn I saw a glowing red eye.

It was when my teacher "supposedly" tried to kill me that Lizzie finally decided to send me to Clear Creek Mental Hospital.

It's okay here I guess. It's not like they make me wear a straitjacket or anything. My psychiatrist had decided that what I saw was not stemmed from self harm, but trying to come up with a reason why my father had left us. He said that many times after a traumatic experience, the human mind will try to solve the problem itself.

He said that I thought the monsters were what he left to fight, not that he didn't like us anymore. He called it an "acute stress reaction" which I thought was just a nicey nicey term for the fact that he thought I was crazy ass.

He condemned me to life here at Clear Creak. It's not so bad. You can pretty much do whatever you want for most of the day, roam free, but you can't go outside without supervision, which is rarely given.

The foods pretty good, and you can personalize the all white room a bit (It actually wasn't allowed, but Dr. James said that I would recover faster if I felt comfortable). I, of course did it all in black and purple.

They even let me have visitors, Lizzie comes and visits every day and comes to my therapy. My friends come over a lot and I've made new ones here too. I go to school for about 4 hours every other day. The only downside is that I won't end up with a full education, so I might not get into a very good college. I had straight A's before:(

Today, however, was very strange. Miss L. (she never told us her real name, yet another fact that I found creepy) was glaring at me weirdly, which sent a shiver down my back.

We had noticed patients going missing, and we had assumed that they had just run away, as that was not at all uncommon with place like this. We had alerted the police, of course, as we were all concerned they would hurt themselves. There was no trace of them, though.

My friend Peter,(who thought he was psychic) swore that he and Brody saw a clean white skeleton in Miss L.'s office, but when they heard her, they ran. It proves difficult to solve a murder case when the only witnesses are mental patients. I wondered for a second if she was who was behind this.

But Mason shook my arm and asked what's wrong and I said "nothing" and went back to my breakfast. The rest of the day I made a point of always having at least one friend with me, although I had a feeling if Miss. L really was one of the monsters, they wouldn't be much good.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Miss L.

Caspia Kelley

At about 2:00 it was time to go outside after finishing our schoolwork. I was feeling much more comfortable because I was with Blade, like his nickname, he always managed to have a weapon on him, hidden somewhere. They never seemed to be able to catch him. He was also really big and I'm think he likes me. I thought if anyone could protect me from Miss L., he could.

A good thing too, because she was coming over here right now.

I pressed myself closer to him. He stopped his story about how he snuck into a My Chemical Romance concert and met Gerard Way and Frank Ieuro, and said "What's wrong Caspia? You look uncomfortable. I'm not that boring am I?"

He was one of those people who were able to make fun of themselves, one of the many things I liked about him.

But I couldn't smile, not now. "It's not you, it's her. Miss L. I think she's the one who's been causing the disappearances. And she was glaring at me at breakfast."

He looked at me. He had a weird look in his eye, a little scary actually. It almost made me feel bad for her. "Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you. If she tries to hurt us, I'll cut off her limbs and feed them to the rats in the basement." I laughed and kissed him, actually kissed him, something I had always thought about doing but never had the courage until now. It was long, but the joy wouldn't last long because I knew she was coming. I pulled away. "What's wrong?-oh shit."

Miss L was right in front of us. For some reason, she, instead of having a gauzy floral skirt, had serpent tails below the waist. Rather than having a pastel cardigan, she was bare chested. She had large fangs and green hair.

She grabbed my neck and wrapped her talons around it. Blade grabbed his own weapon from in his shirt, but she cackled and said "None of that, son of war, or I'll cut your girlfriend's throat. Now march."

She directed us towards the main building, where I was sure she would kill us. I thought long and hard about how to defeat her, but I was overwhelmed by a sense of dread. I couldn't think straight. It was actually happening. The monsters I had always saw and heard and hoped weren't real, were real. And one of them happened to be holding her claws at my throat, already had experience with killing the other patients and was threatening to kill me and the guy I liked. I had no doubt that once we were dead, she would continue to kill the other patients, all of our friends. It gave me another reason to keep fighting. I had to stop this monster.

We were nearing the rec room, where on a normal day, we would watch movies, play video games and hang out, but were instead being taken to our deaths. I didn't even want to think about what would happen if someone was in here. But I liked to read, and I knew a few things about tricking of the oldest tactics: keep them talking. Maybe if I figured out who or what she was, I would be able to defeat her. I spent a lot of time in the library, and I figured out that a lot of the "imaginary" monsters I'd seen were from ancient times; Greek and Roman myths. I also figured out that most of them had weaknesses. Maybe if I learned more about her, I would remember her story and how she could be subdued.

Or perhaps someone would notice we were gone and come save us. Maybe the director with a machine gun?

"So," I began." Do you think you would mind telling us a little about yourself, why you hate mental patients, why you're going to kill us, or at least your name? You know, common courtesy."

She snarled. "Well, I suppose I owe you at least that much. If you must know, I am Lamia. I was a... consort of Zeus's for a while, but Hera got very jealous. She killed my 8 children, which I bore for Zeus. I was traumatized. I had lost everything. Zeus did nothing to help me. But I decided to take my frustration out on humanity. I used my once-good looks to lure men into my web. After they came to my bed I would kill them and drink their blood. Hera, however, did not like the happiness I had grown to feel. She didn't like my sudden spark of sexuality. So she transformed me into this, this haggard thing."

I was confused. "But wait. Before this you looked normal. How did you change?" Her snarl grew wider. " A very thin layer of mist. But thanks to my new appearance I could no longer use men as my prey. Hera decided to make it to where I could never close my eyes, never sleep, never able to forget my pain. My bitterness grew towards mothers who still had children. I decided to start killing them. Children are so easily lured, so easily frightened! Makes it so much easier!"

Blade spoke for the first time. "Why would you hate kids? Wouldn't you, you know empathize with them. Maybe adopt?" She looked very sad. "And tell me. What child would accept me as their mother, a hideous monster?"

For the first time I thought I felt bad for a monster. "That's horribly sad. But you don't need to take it out on us. We might be able to help you. Children really are sweet you know." She looked ready to sob, but she pulled herself together. "What help could you offer me? Mere demigods with no grasp on your own power, no idea even who your godly parent is? No, you are not sweet. Not like mine were. So innocent, so young, but you. You are nothing like them. Trying to trick me. You deserve to die. Now, enough of this talk. I want to kill you now." She lunged.

But before she could, a bronze sword struck her in mid air. Instead of falling, she vaporized into dust, and was scattered by wind that shouldn't have been there. The throwers emerged. There were 2 girls with curly blonde hair, one with violet eyes, the other grey. Of the other 2 boys one had black hair and dark eyes and the other dark brown with green eyes. The one with the purple eyes came over.

"Are you alright?" She had a very sweet voice and I had a feeling that if that It had been a command, I would have done exactly what she said. I would have hurt myself. It sounded like a mix of French, Romanian, and Southern. I looked at her face and I was like "Wow" She was easily the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. She had fair skin, full, blood red lips and high cheekbones. I simply nodded, a bit overwhelmed.

There was this weird feeling that came from looking at her, it was like staring at a thousand different pretty things at once. It made me happy, too, it reminded me of all the good things that had ever happened to me. Not only that, but her face just...clicked so well, every feature perfect and sculpted. The way her blonde hair curled over her shoulders, her eyes shone like the midnight sky, and her lips...Whoa, Caspia. You're straight.

The one with grey eyes laughed and said "Nice job keeping her occupied so long. We never would have gotten here in time. Of course, we might have, if Percy hadn't made us stop for donuts." Percy looked offended. "I was Hungry!" She rolled her eyes "Whatever you say seaweed brain."

The gorgeous girl and the dark one looked amused, like this was an everyday occurrence. "So, who are you guys?" The pretty one spoke " I'm Snow Sabrina, That's Annabeth Chase, He's Nico Di Angelo, and Percy's last name is Jackson." Percy looked up, as if he enjoyed being recognized.

"You guys ready to go?" he said. "Do you have a car?" Blade asked.

"No," Nico said. "But we can shadow travel."

I was happy to remember something. " That's something Hades and his children can do, right?"

He responded with a thin creepy smile. Snow embraced him "Are you sure you can do it with 6 people. I mean, since Tartarus and Hazels Not here..." He kissed her cheek.

"I'll be fine. Everyone grab hands." The world dissolved around us, and left me with a cold feeling. They were in a dark room, with green torches on the walls and 4 poster beds with black skull sheets.

"The Hades Cabin." Annabeth said. "Let's go to the Big House. Chiron and... Mr. D will want to see you. They're the ones who set the Quest. Come on."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Orientation

Caspia Kelly

When they walked out of the dark cabin, I felt blinded by the hot summers day. There was a big blue manor, which I think is probably the Big house they were talking about.

Then a girl popped up. "Hi" She was very pretty with purple eyes, milky pale skin, and glossy black curls.

"Hey, Sapphire!" Nico hugged her. "This is my sister, Sapphire Banks." Her eyes lit up. She seemed crazy, but fun. Someone I would want to be friends with.

She looked a Blade. "Ooooh,oooh I like your sword! Can I hold it?" Blade smiled "Sure." He handedit to her. "It's pretty. Really sharp. Hmmm, have you ever killed anyone with it?"

Annabeth looked at her. "How much sugar have you had today?" Seemed like a fair question. She looked like she was concentrating. "Leo keeps buying me candy. I've had 3 bags of jelly beans and 2 chocolate bars. Leo's so awesome. I love him!"

Annabeth nodded. "That explains a lot." She started bouncing up and down. "Let's all go to the big house together!"

Annabeth started talking to Percy "We're going to have to talk to Leo." Percy nodded "Defiantly."

Sapphire squealed. "We're here!"

Now that they were closer, I could see the house better. It was a big blue manor with a long wraparound porch, with couches and a big poker table. There was a guy in his fifties with a long scraggly beard and hair seated in a wheelchair.

Seated next to him was a rather fat man with jet black hair and a loud outfit: a silk leopard skin track outfit with an I 3 wine t-shirt and purple running shoes. Beside him was a hitchhiker-like kid with acne and... were those goat legs? 'a satyr' I remembered. 'they're the half-goat, half man who worshipped the god Pan and Artemis and really liked nature.

The wheelchair dude looked up from his card game. "Good, you made it back alive." 'what, did he expect we wouldn't? This must be a very unsafe life' Though I was somehow relieved, like maybe we'd finally be safe here.

"Barely," Blade said.

The fat guy snorted. "Why couldn't you have died? The last thing we need around here is more godling brats."

The guy in the wheelchair laughed nervously." Uh, Mr. D is just kidding." Mr. D looked confused. "I was?" He cleared his throat. " At any rate, welcome to Camp Half-Blood. I am Chiron, the centataur." I was amazed. "The Chiron? The one who trained Jason?"

"Why aren't you a horse?" Blade asked.

He chuckled. "My form is compacted into this wheelchair. I like to keep it hidden when I first meet new demigods. I can show you if you like." He rose with effort, revealing the white body of a horse from the waist down.

"I assume you will want to get acquainted with the other campers and see the camp and where you will be staying, but first I would like for you to go inside and watch the orientation film. It shouldn't take very long. Grover, please go with them." He jumped up and said "Follow me. I'll take you to the room."

Blade grasped my hand. "So, where's this going with us? Are we going out now or what?" I smiled. "Well I did just save your life, and I really like you so I guess yes."

"Cool."

We were entering a big and dark room that looked like a home theater. Grover popped in a disk and told us to sit down. There was a narrated tour of the camp, and it talked about what it was like to be a demigod, some of the history of the gods (which included Percy Jackson for some reason, it said that he had saved the world TWICE. I wouldn't have expected that from him when we had first met, he seemed kind of stupid=]) finally it was over and Grover said "So what did you think? Anything you're still confused about, any questions I can answer for you?"

"Yeah, when do we get claimed?" Blade asked.

"Well, after Percy won the war with the Titans, he made them promise to claim their kids by the time they're thirteen. You two are what? 15, 16? You'll defiantly get claimed today, probably at the campfire or at dinner. Don't worry," he pointed at me. "Caspia, you look like the daughter of Hecate. Blade, I wanna say Ares, but you seem a little too nice for that. But I don't know. Good luck. I gotta go." He clopped away on his hooves.

Snow walked in. "Would you like me to show you around the camp?"

"Yeah, that'd be great." I said.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Camp

Caspia Kelly

We walked out. She guided us around the camp; the cabins, the temples and gardens the basketball hoops, the lake (which she said there would be canoe races, I LOVE the water!)but then she started to freak me out a little bit.

I asked if we could go to the woods and she said : "No, you shouldn't go by yourselves until you've completed your training or mastered your powers completely. It's dangerous. They stock monsters in there. I would go with you to protect you, but we need to get you moved into the Hermes cabin.

I liked her. You'd think that with the way she looked, she would be prissy, but she seemed like a genuinely nice person, funny, and incredibly intelligent. She said she had an identic memory, which made it to where it was impossible to forget anything. She said she had a twin named Topaz.

"So, who's your godly parent? You seem very powerful. One of the big 3 you talked about, maybe? Or Aphrodite"

She laughed. "No, I'm not a demigod. I'm not a god, either if that's what you're thinking. No, I'm a witch. So is my sister."

I shifted from foot to foot. " So, you're a sorceress? Aren't they supposed to be really mean and like, kill people? Like Medea and Circe."

"No, a witch, very different. Much more powerful. A sorceress has control of the mist, which basically just clouds people's eyes, making them see things differently. A witch actually creates things. I draw my power from nature and fire. Topaz's comes from nature and water."

"Who do you think my godly parent is?"

She shook her head. "Honestly, I don't think it's Hecate. You're sort of the type, the silver eyes and dark red hair, and you're smart and a little mysterious, and you're Goth, most Hecate kids are, but it couldn't be her because you said you're mom's mortal. Unless she's not a 100% straight." I laughed at that one.

"But seriously, you seem like a Poseidon kid. You said you liked water, right? That almost guarantees that you're his daughter. You're not obsessed with blue, are you? Percy is. Maybe you're his sister. I know he would like that." When I first met Percy, I thought he was kind of dumb, but he seemed like a nice guy, and he must be smart to be able to save the world that many times. He might make a nice brother.

"No, I don't like blue that much. My favorite colors are black and purple." She smiled. "Me, too!" Blade cleared his throat. "Who do you think my Dad is?"

"What's your mom like?"

He scratched his chin. "Her name is Jessica Roberts. She is a history professor at Thomas Jefferson High school in Denver. She taught history, and she was obsessed with war. Not so much to where she'd want to risk her life and leave me, it was a hard choice for her to send me to Clear Creek, but I guess she did it to keep me safe... She was more interested in the strategy and the history than the blood." She nodded "You probably are an Ares then, but Grover's right, you are too nice. You're certainly big enough, but I think we'll have to wait until the campfire. Another factor that points toward him, Lamia called you 'son of war' and monsters can sense who your parent is." I frowned "Why do you keep monsters in the woods?"

"Campers sometimes summon them for practice fights or pranks."

"Pranks?" She looked in front of them. "Speaking of pranks. We're here. The Hermes cabin. Watch your wallet. Bye." I turned to say goodbye too, but she was gone, replaced by a faint purple glow on the grass.

Before I could think too much on it, though, a kid appeared. "Hi, I'm Travis Stoll. My brother... Connor! You ruined our entrance!" Another boy who looked exactly like him except taller. "So what are your names?"

"Caspia Kelly."

"Blade Roberts."

"Cool. Come inside and-"

"-Make yourself comfortable." I got the feeling that would get annoying after a while. I wondered if Snow and Topaz did that too. The guys themselves seemed cool, though. They were pretty nice, but she was right. Someone tried to pick my pocket and I swatted his hand. Connor sighed. "Forgive him."

"He's new."

"We'll have to work on that."

"Your bunks are over here." I looked where he was pointing. There was an empty bunk bed. "I want the top," I announced. "Fine by me. I don't want to fall off." We sat on our bunks, having nothing to put on them. "This is boring," I said. " Yeah. Let's go do something." We were going to the rock wall. It looked really cool, it clashed and poured lava.

Then two guys nearly knocked us over. They both wore smirks on their faces. "Oops, sorry." The dirty blonde one said.

"Yeah, total accident." The blue haired one said.

"Hey, look Eric, they're newbies!" The first one said.

"You're right Hanson! We'd better tell Clarisse!" Eric said.

"Hey, cutie, what's your name?"

"Caspia."

"Okay, miss medieval princess, why you hangin around this loser?" Hanson asked.

"Why don't you talk to someone cool? Don't come much better than us." Eric made kissey faces at me.

Blade glared at them. "Leave her alone." His voice was steady and angry."Oh, Caspia, I think you have an admirer. Too bad you're way out of his league." Hanson said.

"But completely in ours." Eric said with a blinding smile.

"Leave them alone," said that familiar sweet voice, filled with force.

They completely forgot about me and turned on her with another blinding smile.

"Yo Sabrina the teenage witch, you ever gonna dump Solace and go out with a real man?" Eric said, flexing his muscles.

"Get away from me."

"Aw, don't be like that. You know you want this." Eric said with a grin.

She rolled her eyes. He moved closer to her and she punched him in the nose, with so much force, it almost looked like the ground vibrated.

The sound was loud and everyone turned toward them. Blood was gushing out fast.

"Come on dude, let's go!" Hanson said.

"You can't fight this!" He said pinching his nose and wincing. "We're destined to be together!"

They ran to the infirmary.

"Thanks Snow." She smiled. "You mistake me for my sister." I looked at her more closely. Her eyes, instead of being violet, were blue-green-black, and reminded me of the deep ocean, instead of different shades of purple. "You're Topaz." She nodded.

"So how do you know those guys?"

She sighed with exasperation. "My sister and I have been here nearly since the camp opened. As soon as they got here, about 6 or 7 years ago, they've been hitting on us, even when we're dating someone else. They do pretty much whatever they want to any girl they like, to pretty much anyone in general. They like to beat up the weaker demigods, classic bullies really."

There was a silence.

"So do you and Snow have much in common, I mean besides your faces?" Blade asked.

"My sister and I are very different. She's smarter and less shallow than me, but I'm funnier and I get into trouble more. People like us about the same, and we have the same face."

"What kind of stuff do you do?" She gave us a brilliant smile. "All kinds. At my school in New Orleans, It's a private school by the way, which is why I hate it, I like to torture the teachers. You can throw birdseed all over the teachers parking lot and wait for them to crap all over everything, throw some Styrofoam in the ventilation system so it snows, one time I put a sign on all the doors saying 'new teachers needed' It's fun!"

"It's genius! You'll have to collab with me sometime!"

"You must spend a lot of time with the Stolls." She smiled. "I do! They're fun! Snow always says you shouldn't go around making enemies, but it's fine because you're pranking your friends. Do you want me to teach you how to use a sword?" I was starting to like her. "That would be great!"

She motioned for us to follow her. "We'll have to go to the armory, first. At least for Caspia. Blade already has weapons." I wondered briefly how she knew that, they were all concealed, but it didn't last.

When we got there I thought it was a garden shed. But it was filled with weapons. "Just look around and see what you like."

I scanned the room. There was spears, shields, knives, bow and arrows, and swords. I decided I wanted a sword. I looked around. There was a very gaudy jeweled one, a bronze one that looked like it weighed as much as me, a skinny dyed pink one, and a silver emerald ring. I picked it up.

"What's this in here for?" She frowned. "Oh, that. That is a hidden weapon. You twist the jewel, and it turns into a sword. Weird, It looks familiar..."

I tried it on and twisted it. It grew into a 4 foot long silver sword with a raven on the hilt. It was well balanced, and I decided this was the right one. The hidden feature was especially cool.

"I want this one," I said confidently. "Okay, something just feels weird about this..." I was uncertain. "So, you don't want me to take it? Is it cursed or something?" She shook her head. " No, I just think it's weird that It feels familiar, but I don't remember."

"You have an identic memory like Snow?" She laughed uncertainly. "Yeah I do. It almost seems like someone wiped my memory... I dunno. Let's go to the Arena to practice."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Training and Dinner

Caspia Kelly

It turns out Topaz was a really good sword fighter. She showed me how to disarm someone by locking your hilt and twisting, and how to always hit the other blade away from you.

She showed me some self-defense, too. She taught me how to hit harder and kick if you lose your weapon (using Blade as her dummy) and how to get out of a choke hold or a headlock.

By the time we were done I felt very experienced and the dinner horn rang. Everyone gathered by cabin, and I got in line between Travis and a blonde girl named Lily. At the table there was plates of roast beef, rolls, and fruits and vegetables.

I was about to dig in, but I noticed everyone was going up to the hearth and throwing food in. 'burnt offerings to the gods' I thought. I took a fat cluster of grapes and prayed silently to my father. 'Whoever you are, please tell me. I want you to claim me.' I sat back down at the Hermes table and looked at my empty goblet. "When will someone come fill it?" I asked. "You don't fill it. Just think of what you want to drink, and it will appear."

"And," he whispered. "The others won't tell you this, but you can make it produce alcohol." I smiled. "I'll remember that."

Upon hearing this, Blade proceeded to fill his cup with beer. It never ran out. I got the feeling he was going to be very drunk tonight. I filled mine with Code Red Mountain Dew, my favorite drink since ever. I picked up a burger and started chowing down. I noticed everyone was staring at me. I looked up.

There was a green trident hovering over my head. "Hail Caspia Kelly, daughter of Poseidon." Everyone stood up and started clapping. Blade congratulated me, but I saw envy in his eyes. "Don't worry," I whispered in his ear. "You'll get claimed at the campfire." He looked at me gratefully, but I saw a trace of doubt.

On the way to the campfire, Percy came up to me. "I'm glad to have a sister like you. I've been a bit jealous of di Angelo for a while, having Sapphire, but now I've got you. I'll help you move your stuff out of the Hermes cabin after the campfire." I blushed. "I don't have any stuff." He snapped his fingers. "Oh, yeah. It would still be at that mental hospital, wouldn't it? Don't worry, I'll send someone to get it."

"How will you get in without being seen? They're probably still looking for me there."

He smirked. "Yeah, been there. They probably think you and Blade killed the oh so innocent Lamia and all those other kids. Damn mist. Don't worry, they'll never find you here. Unless you go on a quest, but when I have I cleared my name a lot of times by completing it, though you'll almost get caught a few times."

"Yeah, I heard you saved the world."

"You make it sound like I just did it once. That's offensive. It's like my yearly community service."

"I'll let you come on my quest so that you can keep your reputation."

"IF you get a quest. You don't want to be assigned to one, they're dangerous, and usually they come from the gods trying to kill each other, someone trying to kill the gods, or someone trying to kill us." I frowned. "Doesn't sound so appealing when you say it like that." He laughed. "It's not. Oh, we're here. Try to sing." 'What sing, I thought this was a campfire. Won't we be talking and roasting mashmallows?

Percy and I sat next to Blade who was talking to Annabeth and Sapphire and a guy with curly black hair and a mischievous smile. He had his arm around Sapphire.

"You must be Leo." He grinned. "So, you've already heard the stories of how Leo the awesome saved the world from dirt face?"

I stifled a laugh."No, I just heard you were dating Sapphire, and you have your arm around her."

He frowned. "Oh, well I don't sound as awesome that way. At least I have a girlfriend." She kicked him. "Ow!-I mean I girlfriend who I love so very dearly and don't want to leave me."

She smiled. "That's more like it fire-boy."

They were all singing this weird song about how their Grandmother got dressed for war. I decided against participating. Just when I was about to eat my finely roasted marshmallow, I saw something put out the fire.

Chiron looked worried. "It has never gone out by itself. NEVER."

Then something appeared in the empty fireplace. It was a man with a black bikers jacket, muscle t-shirt, and black jeans. He looked around the crowd. "Lord Ares. We are honored." He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah I know. Where's my kid?-Oh, there you are, Blade. Come here." He looked ready to die of embarrassment, but I squeezed his shoulder and urged him forward. The red disappeared from his face, and he walked down. "Now this kid, he's gotta be on the quest di Angelo's gonna lead,"

He gestured at Nico. "Hi, Snow," She waved.

"I want her to be on it as well. Her sister, too. But you'll need a quest of 9. First time a son of Hades has ever led a quest, so I hope you won't disappoint me. And my kid here, he's going to have a role to play, a hard choice he's gotta make. Never the less, you're going to need him. The quest will leave in 3 days."

He cocked his head, like someone was speaking to him. "I have to go. Zeus only lets me be in the presence of Mortals for so long." He disappeared in a gust of fire, which relit the campfire.

"Well, I suppose it's certain. Nico Di Angelo will lead the quest to... well, we can't tell you what for. He will bring Blade Roberts, Snow and Topaz Sabrina, and 6 other companions. Have fun. Our new campers, Caspia and Blade, you may go settle in your new cabins. Goodnight and rest well."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Cabins

Caspia Kelly

I decided to bring Percy and help Blade settle In his cabin before myself. The other Ares kids were obviously resentful, I guess their dad hadn't actually come to the camp for their claiming.

A girl, she said her name was Clarisse La Rue, seemed to be better with him. She got some sheets to put on his bunk and welcomed him. The others glared at him but they probably didn't want to cross Clarisse or Percy.

He settled down and I was a little worried because I thought that they might hurt him while he was sleeping out of jealousy. He must have read this on my face and he smirked. "Don't worry. I'll have a knife under my pillow," he said, loud enough for the others to hear. I didn't think they'd be attacking him tonight.

He pulled me close and kissed me, making sure the others could see. A few whistled. Percy ran over and yanked me off "None of that young lady. It's time for you to go to bed." I huffed. "I'm 15, not 10. And you are NOT my father."

He stiffened, "As long as you live under my roof you live under my rules. And I say you can't make out with boys."

"I DON'T even live in the Poseidon cabin yet. And Chiron's roof not yours. And I saw you making out with Annabeth at the campfire. You had your hands all over her, too, touching-"

"-You're GROUNDED!" I rolled my eyes "Okay." I walked out the door. Percy gave Blade a murderous glare , just make sure he got the message too, and followed me.

Percy seemed to calm down by the time we got to the Poseidon Cabin. It was a long grey building embedded with shells. The inside was surrounded by water. There was a big aquarium instead of walls, that seemed to stretch for miles. It was probably enchanted to hold more things than should fit in it. They were filled with a beautiful coral reef, colorful fish, dolphins, turtles, crabs, seahorses, sharks, and some starfish on the glass ."

At the end, there was a door that probably was for him to be able to go swimming. In the middle, there was 8 4-poster beds with silk sheets. There was a bathroom at the end of the room, which also had fish in it. Why you would want that in there I didn't know.

Percy sat down on one of the beds. "I'm sorry for yelling at you back there. You're not grounded."

I sat next to him. "Thanks."

"It's just... the only family I've had is my mom, and I'm pretty protective of her, too. I hardly ever get to see Poseidon, and it's not like I need to protect Tyson."

"Tyson?" A six foot tall Cyclops came barreling in the room and tackled Percy. "Brother!" I was too overwhelmed with shock that there was a monster in the cabin to even draw my sword. When he let go, he said: "It's not just me anymore, buddy, you have a sister now, too."

He turned his attention towards me. "Sister!" I gasped for breath. "Can't ...breathe..." He released me. Percy winced. "He doesn't know his own strength. He's completely harmless; he's really sweet actually. He's a really good brother. Good backup, too , if you run into Clarisse or something."

"She seemed really nice actually." He stared at me like I just turned into an alien. "Clarisse? Nice? Have you met her?"

"Yeah. She was the only one who welcomed Blade, remember? She kept everyone from hurting him. She was the only one who wasn't mean and jealous of him."

"Pffft, that's probably because her dad is already proud of her. After the battle of Manhatten, he gave her the blessing of Ares, which is really the best thing you can get as a child of war. She got it for slaying a drakon and building an aura of fear. She also got better after she started dating Chris Rodriguez. But believe me, you havn't seen her on her worst days. Be careful around her."

"Okay. I'll keep that in mind. Goodnight."

"Night."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Hades Cabin

Snow Sabrina

I walked with Nico to his cabin. when we got there I closed the door, so as to avoid unwanted listeners. "It's about Hades staff isn't it?" He blinked. "How did you know about that. I haven't told you yet."

"Because I talk to Hades too. Even if he didn't tell me, it was pretty obvious that one of his symbols of power was missing. He specifically asked YOU to lead the quest, he wouldn't have done that if it didn't involve him. And he made sure not to tell people what it was for; Hades wouldn't want people to know about that kind of thing. It could've been the keys, his helm or his sword, but the keys are IN the sword, and it's one of the main things he uses now, as is his helm, which would be well guarded after it was stolen 6 years ago by Luke Castellan. His staff would be the easiest thing to steal to provoke him. The only question is WHY did they want to make him angry. Are they trying to start another war among the gods? Nothing else has been stolen yet, though."

"Do you have any theories on who is doing this?"

I sighed. "Yes, it is highly possible the Titans are coming back, that seems like the kind of thing they would do. The giants don't think that way; they're not smart enough. Their only gear is to fight and to follow Gaea's orders. Another thing... that is much more disturbing."

He sat next to me. "What is it?"

I took a deep breath. "It's possible that the monsters are getting tired of having to reform. It's highly painful, another reason I don't like to kill them besides that I don't want to make any enemies. They may think that if they can control the underworld, they can stop death. They can stop having to go to Tartarus. Their next move would probably be to take out all the minor gods of the underworld. Then they probably think that that in itself will destroy Hades. Or they might think that killing Persephone would kill him. Or you or Sapphire really. Maybe even Hazel. If everything he stands for, everything he believes in, everything he cares about is destroyed, he will be as well. That is how you kill gods."

I took a shaky breath. "Nico, I don't know if you should go. Out there, they'll be able to get to you. I don't want anything to happen to you." A tear traced down my cheek. I had lost enough people already. Had enough horrible things happen to me. My scars...

"Don't worry. They won't be able to get me. I'm a very powerful demigod. And it will be so much more painful for them if they try to hurt you... and...you think Kronos is behind this, don't you? He's whispering in their minds. They're not smart enough to think of all that. I WON'T let him get you. I can't lose you too."

I hugged him tightly. "Who are the 6 you decided to bring?"

"That girl, Caspia Kelly, she seems smart, she's nice, and she fights well. Percy and Annabeth, that Blade guy, Leo, and... Sapphire. I hope that's okay." I shook my head. "I don't think it's a good idea. But, I don't suppose there's any changing your mind once it's made up. And anyway, she can help you with shadow traveling. It would get difficult with 9 people. You're getting stronger... Do you want to go tell them they're on the quest?" He looked up. "Yeah, and then we can... have some fun."

"It's kinda late."

"Come on, please?" I sighed. "Okay. Let's go. We went over to the Persephone cabin and told Sapphire, then Percy and Caspia, then Annabeth, then Blade, then Leo. After a long walk from bunker nine, we finally got back to the Hades cabin.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Grover seeks help

Snow Sabrina

I woke up at 10:00 in the morning and Nico was gone. I got dressed and left to get something to eat. On the way there I saw Caspia and Topaz, on their way to the arena, probably to practice sword fighting. "

"Hey, do you want to come with us?" Caspia asked. "Topaz said you're really good at fighting, too."

"Maybe later. I overslept, and I'm going down to the dining hall to get breakfast. I'll show you some other time."

"What does that mean?" Caspia asked.

"She slept with Di Angelo." I pretended not to hear. I waked down to the Dining Hall and had a bowl of fruit and a mimosa. Then I went to the amphitheater to see if they needed any help.

On the way there I encountered Grover, who asked "Do you want to come pick berries with Me and Juniper?"

"That wouldn't be very romantic. Don't you want to be alone?"

"I've just been really nervous around her lately. I thought you might be good for moral support. You're nicer than Annabeth. She would probably just hit me."

I laughed. "Yeah, she would."

"So will you come?" I thought Topaz could do a pretty good job teaching her on her own. Percy might help her, too. I wanted Grover to succeed with Juniper.

I patted his shoulder. "I am nice. I'll cancel my plans of teaching Caspia how to kill people to help you. That's how nice I am."

"Uh, thanks."

"I'll have to extend the lesson on torture tomorrow, though..."

"Great, let's go."

"Did you invite anyone else?"

"Yeah, Piper insisted on coming. She's really crazy sometimes. Even crazier than you, actually."

"I don't see how that's possible."

"And I invited Percy and Leo. I thought they might lighten the mood with Leo's jokes and Percy's stupidity."

"That's mean. Percy is smart, he's just uneducated." I paused.

"Juniper likes Nico, maybe you should bring him, too."

"Yeah, she does. I don't know why she likes being around him so much. He's death and she's life...It's an interesting friendship."

"I'll go get him." Grover frowned. "You know where he is?"

"Yes. We'll need to go to the woods still though. Turn around, Percy and Leo are trying to scare you." He turned, and saw them sneaking up behind him. "Damn, Snow. Did you have to ruin our fun?" Percy scowled.

"Yes. He's already nervous. The last thing he needs is you scaring him. By the way, Grover said you're stupid."

"I am not stupid! I just have F's and D's."

"I rest my case." Grover coughed.

"I gotta go." I said happy to escape their arguing. At the clearing, Nico was sitting on a rock, practicing raising mouse skeletons and precious stones.

"Hey." He said without looking up. "Want a ruby." I took it and sat next to him. This wasn't going to be easy. "Do you want to come hang out with Percy, Leo, Piper, Grover, Juniper and me?"

He looked at me like I had just turned into a Medusa. "Why would I want to do that?"

I put my arm around him. "Come, on. They're your friends. And you'll get some nice berries." He shied away from me, his eyes full of fear. "They're going berry picking? You didn't tell me that."

"It's not that bad. Please, for me. We can stay at the back of the group and avoid everyone else if you want." He perked up.

"Okay. Let's go, Snowflake. Where are we meeting them?" I smiled. "Juniper's tree." As promised, we stuck to the back of the group and didn't talk to anyone. I know I wasn't being a good friend to Grover, but he had 2 other friends to help him and one crazy love enthusiast.

"So have you been to see the Oracle yet?"

"He looked down. "I don't want to talk about it." I dropped it.

"Okay, so did you hear about what Topaz did?"

He looked up. " No, what happened?"

"Okay, do you remember Hanson and Eric, those annoying guys from Ares?"

"Hanson, the one that came over to us at the campfire and started flirting with you right in front of me and called me deathboy, causing me to make his left hand start rotting resulting in me getting kitchen duty?"

"That's the one. So his friend Eric likes Topaz, but he was hitting on the new girl we brought over from the mental hospital, Caspia Kelly, and... Making fun of Blade, and she went over to help, and he made a move on her and...made fun of Will, this seems to be becoming characteristic of them... And she punched him, full force in the nose, and broke it, there was blood EVERYWHERE, his favorite shirt was ruined, but he insists she is still his true love and they are only stronger because he likes tough girls."

"Why didn't you punch Hanson like that? Topaz is loyal."

" I AM loyal, I would have if he had been able to keep going, and if you hadn't taken matters into your own hands."

"Hey, he was asking for it."

"I know. I'm glad you did it. I love your powers. So much cooler than being able to strike someone with lightning or douse them in water."

"You have to be the only person I'll ever meet who will find my scary qualities cool."

"I don't know about that. Sapphire does, Topaz and your bestie Will, he only complains because he wants you to be safe. Literally everyone finds them useful and I'm sure you'll meet other people who do, too."

"Oh, did you hear who died?"

I smirked. Nico is the only person you could have this kind of conversation with. " No, who?"

"The guy who played Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies."

"You mean Alan Rickman? That's too bad, he was a good actor."

"Obbbviously." I laughed. Nico didn't make jokes very often.

"I'm going to make you watch Harry Potter with me tonight."

"Okay, which one?"

"The order of the Pheonix, that's when Bellatrix Lesteange gets out of Asksban."

"Yeah, I know how much you love her."

"Of course she's fucking awesome. Gotta love that Bellamort!"

"Yeah, Voldies my favorite. I like the Slytherins, too."

"Yeah I like Draco Malfoy too... But let's talk about something else. I feel like I'm fangirling."

"Okay, so DC killed Joker!"

"Gasp! What were they smoking?"

"Something that fucked their mind up for sure."

"I mean Joker is like the most popular, most bestest villan EVAH! What is wrong with those boneheads!"

"You're quoting Legally Blonde."

"Totally. Actually, let's watch that tonight."

"Fine by me. I weirdly like all those girly movies."

"That is so fetch of you."

"No, no, I think you used that wrong."

"Hmmmm, maybe you're right. We should invite Will to watch with us!"

"Oh, yeah, he likes chick flicks too. But it goes better with his personality."

"Aw, no, you can be fun, too, as well as brooding and gloomy. Personally, I like both aspects of you."

"That's so sweet, but no on else does."

"That's because these bitches expect you to be dark, and don't want you to have fun. But I do."

"Because you looove me."

"Yeah, I do. You're freakin amazing."

"Well you're the prettiest girl in the world."

I sighed. "Can you please give me a compliment that doesn't involve my looks? That's all I ever get."

"Why, you're really smart too. I think you're smarter than the whole Athena cabin put together."

"Don't tell Annabeth that. She'd kill you."

"She'd try."

"Yeah you could always rot her hand, but that would be mean, and I don't advise it, because an angry Annabeth AND Percy, equals a very dead Nico."

"Please get over the whole rotting hand I did to Hanson."

"There's nothing to get over. I thought it was cool. And I find jealousy and anger attractive."

"That's why you're perfect for me."

"However, my very powerful dangerous Father found out and he doesn't like you."

"Aw, well that sucks."

I nodded. "Yes, it does. He could have you killed ya know."

"Nah, he'd just use mortals."

I shook my head. "No, he wouldn't. He actually has a ton of monsters to do his bidding."

"Oh, well-"

"Hey, keep it down back there. You two are already in a happy relationship, let other people get there too!" Piper screamed.

"Piper, we are happy. I really think we just need to be alone."

"Okay, okay, let's go people." Piper dragged Percy and Leo over to where we were standing. "So, what are you guys talking about."

I thought it was best not to mention my dad not liking him in front of Piper. Nico seemed to get the message too.

"Just random flirting, camp gossip. Oh, did you hear? DC had the nerve to kill off the Joker!"

"What's DC?" Piper asked.

"Dude. DC Comics. The very place where we get Superman, and Batman and so many other great Superheros of our generation. Have you been living under a rock?" Percy asked irritably.

"Right, dude. You know Superman almost died a few weeks ago?" Leo said.

"Broh, is DC smoking?" Percy said.

"Right?" I said.

Piper ignored them as they went out of the group to talk about Comic books. "Juniper and Grover should try to be more like you two. They were hardly touching each other, exchanging meaningless conversation, and avoiding eye contact. But here you guys are, Nico had his arm around Snow, and he's stroking her hair, and you were clearly having a good conversation, minus the part about comic books."

Piper went on and on about everything that was wrong with Grover and Junipers relationship, then, before long, we were leaving the forest and it was lunchtime. I didn't eat anything, I just talked to Sapphire, Nico, and Topaz at the Hades Table.

Sapphire was telling a story about how peaches had started following her everywhere. "So yesterday I was walking to go to Pegasus riding class, right? And in the garden there's this big peach tree, and when I passed it, a peach fell off and hit my head. So naturally I glared at it, hoping it would clear off, but then it just bounced off me over and over and when I ran from it, it chased after me until I got to my cabin and I shut the door really fast. I've stayed in there all day, until I got hungry and didn't want to eat flowers so I came here. But right now it's waiting with anticipation outside."

"Can't it get in? It's an open air pavilion." Nico wondered.

"Yes, but there's an anti magic spell around the dining pavilion so that there's not as great of a chance of a fight, since literally everyone is in the same room at the same time." Snow explained.

"So back to the problem at hand, why is a peach assaulting me?"

Topaz chuckled. " I think your grandmother is playing a trick on you."

"Why would my own dear grandmother do that to me?"

"Why don't you ask Demeter to stop when you perform the sacrifice you've been neglecting to do?"

"Yeesh, snarky much Nico?"

She grabbed a juicy piece of watermelon that should have been out of season and went to the front to burn it.

Topaz turned to me. "Father called me last night."

"What did Daddy want?"

"He said he wanted me to tell you that he was sorry for his behavior when he met Nico and that he was wrong to judge him just because he has a skull tattoo and multiple piercings in his ears. He said he's willing to skype him and get to know him and overlook his 'how do you say emoness'."

"Well wasn't that nice of him." I turned to him. "Don't worry Mother likes you. She said you're a nice boy with just the right amount of attitude."

"Well tell her I said thanks."

"Okay. Did you hear about What happened to Miranda Gardner?"

"What happened to her?" Nico asked without interest.

"Travis shot her with an arrow."

He laughed. "What?"

"Miranda was chasing after this vine with a mind of its own and she wasn't looking where she was going and ran straight in front of the archery field, and everyone but Travis noticed. He shot her in the shoulder and got stable cleaning duty and no dessert for two weeks."

"Ouch. Next week is pie week. 'Course we'll miss that too, with the quest and everything."

"What about pie?" Sapphire asked when she finally returned.

"We're missing pie week because of the quest." Topaz explained.

She stared at her in horror. "But they're setting up a pie buffet and having a contest and the winner gets to lock the cleaning harpies in a cage for two nights and have no chores for a month!"

"Sorry, Sis."

"Ugh, you guys are terrible!"

"Why did you take so long getting back?" Nico asked with concern.

"Oh, I just stopped to talk to Leo. Do me a favor and don't turn into Percy."

"I would never do anything if the sort but what do you mean specifically?"

"Okay, so Topaz introduced me to that new girl you guys brought back, Caspia. She's supercool, and she's dating the other guy you all brought back, Blade. And Percy was getting super protective and doesn't like him being near her. He's like the overbearing father she never had who threatens the new guy as soon as she brings him home."

"Percy threatened him? He has always struck me as a pretty nice guy." Nico said with slight confusion.

"He said and I quote, 'If I ever see your hands on my sister we just might find your body at the bottom of the canoe lake.'" I explained with amusement.

"Hmmm... I wonder where he would end up?" Nico mused.

"If he died now, the fields of Asphodel because he hasn't done anything hero worthy yet."

"Let's hope Percy doesn't drown him," Topaz said.

Then we went to archery. It turned out that Blade was one of the worst shots at camp. He hit a passing satyr who said he was better than Percy, which wasn't really a compliment. At first people ducked simply because Caspia was Percy's sister, but she turned out to be really good, and people relaxed(at least as much as they could with Percy there).

I got a bulls eye nearly every time, but Tyson couldn't even figure out how to put the arrow on his bow, and when Percy offered to help, he ran away screaming. When we found him, cowering under a bin filled with arrows, Will Solace offered to help him. He didn't seem to find that as scary, so he allowed him to help him.

Then later, we went to Pegasus riding (or, most of us. Nico can't go there ️) I rode Cherry, my Pegasus who's named that because of her red coat and pink mane that I like to wash with strawberry shampoo and put glitter in. She seems to be the only one besides Blackjack who doesn't mind Nico. She's a sweet horse. I keep trying to get him to come here and ride Cherry or Blackjack, but he said he doesn't want to take the insults from the other horses. I got that. I didn't know why animals hated him so much. Sure, he radiated death, but it wasn't like he was planning to kill them or something. They might not have been able to tell. Before long, the day was over and it was dinnertime.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The quest and Mean Girls

Snow Sabrina

The days went by fast. Caspia and Blade got a lot better with fighting and strategics. They were ready for the danger that laid ahead. Before long, we were heading out on the quest. "So, where are we starting? Where are we going?" Blade asked. "Snow told me we should go to San Francisco." Nico replied.

Annabeth raised her eyebrows. "That makes sense. It has the most monsters, if her first theory was correct, it has Mount Tam, if the Titans are the reason for this, and it's close to Los Angeles , so we can get to the Underworld. And we can go to my Dad for weapons or other help. And there's an entrance to the labyrinth. We can even go to Alcatraz to see if they're holding anyone new there, like with Briares. That's a good idea."

"So, should we get plane tickets?"

"No, I can shadow travel."

"Ohhhh, no you don't! No underworld-y magic for you. Don't you see it's killing you."

Nico threw his head back in frustration. "I HAVE to, Will. You're my friend and everything, but you can be REALLY annoying." He raised his hands. "Do you remember what happened last time? You almost disappeared! You could have turned into a ghost!"

"We can't go on a plane! Percy will get smitted by Zeus!"

"Oh, yeah," Percy muttered.

"Besides, I've already healed from last time." "So, you want it to happen again?" Topaz put a hand on his shoulder. "It'll be fine. Just there and back. You don't want Percy to die do you? I think Nico being a little tired is preferable to him dying." Will seemed to calm down. "Okay. I guess you have a point." I shook my head. "No, I don't think Nico should shadow travel. He'll need his strength for other things. He's one of the most powerful on the quest. He shouldn't waste his strength by getting there with it. I can pray to Zeus, and I can get the Tickets really fast because of my father."

Nico glared at me. "Who's side are you on?" I sighed. "Nico, we need you to summon the dead, and we can get there perfectly well on a plane. You don't need to prove you can do everything. We know you're powerful, but you're not invincible."

Blade blinked, oblivious to the argument. "Who's your dad?"

"Derek Karl."

He blinked again. "The billionaire? But you don't have the same last name."

"My moms name is Scarlett Sabrina, and I have her name."

"Oh, so can you get them, now?" I responded by walking away and pulling out my phone.

"Hi, my name is Steve." ' _of_ _course_ _it_ _is_ ' I thought.

"How can I help you?" I tapped the phone. "I need first class tickets from New York to San Francisco, right now." He paused. "Who's your father?"

One of the advantages of having money. People will do almost anything for you, with the mention of a name. "Derek Karl."

"What's your name?"

"Snow Sabrina." He yelled something I couldn't hear to someone in the background. "Nine, you say. I'm afraid that will be most difficult for us to arrange. Of course, for an extra fee for the hardworking people helping you, I think we'll manage." I sighed. "How much do you want?" He made a sound like he was smiling. "60,000 cash, upfront."

"That will work. When does the flight leave?"

"10:30. Where are you?" I rolled my eyes. "None of your business. If we're not there by then hold the flight back, or no money."

"Will do." I hung up and walked over to my friends. "It's 9:24, so we have an hour and 6 minutes to get there. We can take the van." I marched over and got in with Argus, the others following my lead. There was a new TV installed in the car, and we argued about what to watch. There were 12 movies in the car: mean girls, legally blonde, the shining, woman in black, Dora in fairytale land (WHY that was in there I didn't know, there were no 5 year olds at Camp Half-Blood) The little Mermaid, The Princess Bride, Nico the Unicorn, Dracula, The Devil wears Prada, Terminator 2, James Bond: Goldeneye. We decided to take a vote. Everyone but the ghost king himself voted for Nico the unicorn. He voted for Dracula. He just looked at me and said:" I expected better from you."

"How about Mean Girls?" I said, trying to be nice. "Nico the Unicorn is kind of boring. It doesn't even have a song we could sing to him." That mellowed them out. We took a second vote. Percy and Caspia voted for The little mermaid, Annabeth, Sapphire, Topaz, Leo and me voted for Mean Girls, Blade voted for Goldeneye, and Nico still wanted Dracula. "Come on, Sapphire, Snow, Topaz, you don't want to watch a good movie?"

"Why did no one vote for goldeneye?"

"Why would we? Ariel rocks." Percy said. "But James Bond has violence, guns and sex scenes."

"Does James Bond gave lustrous red hair, enormous blue eyes a hilarious crab and wimpy colorful fish? Not to mention she's a mermaid, my biggest dream is to one day become one."

"I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear that. We're watching Mean Girls weirdo." Annabeth said.

"Well, it's good to know we tried." We watched mean girls on the way there, and it did seem like everyone did like it. They all laughed and enjoyed it. My favorite character is Karen, seconded by Regina, then Damian. I kind of like Gretchen too. I hate Janis, though. She's emo, and she's a bitch. So, she got called a lesbian. She should have just gone out with some guy to prove them wrong. She didn't need to ruin Regina's life. She didn't deserve a happy ending. I also hated that the plastics broke up at the end of the movie. I liked them together.

(I'm sorry if you're reading this, and you've never seen Mean Girls. You can get it for2.99 on YouTube, or for more at target or something. If you have Netflix you can get it there. You should really check it out! Sorry if I spoiled it for you!)


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The plane

Snow Sabrina

When we got to the airport, we were so involved with the movie that we didn't want to get out. We were there for an extra 30 minutes because of that. When we finally got to the airport, we saw Steve. He was waiting for us with a smirk on his face. Topaz and me walked over to him, and his smile grew wider. "Hello, are you Snow and Topaz?"

"Yes." He looked us over. "You look just like your pictures. You are really pretty." Topaz groaned. "Great, here's your money, now let us get on the plane." I shot her a look 'Be nice, he's going to help us'

"Could you try to do it inconspicuously, I think there will be many angry people on the plane." He gave that fake smile again. It reminded me of Apollo, it almost blinded me.

"Of, course, you know, I'll be on the plane with you." Somehow, that didn't reassure me. He seemed like a monster. I exchanged a look with Annabeth. She seemed to be having similar thoughts. "Please follow me," He said with a blinding smile.

I was starting to wish we had brought Tyson or Grover or one of the other satyrs so they could sniff him out and tell what he was. But we had no choice but to follow him. He made up an excuse to the passengers that there was a problem with fueling, and they were now ready to take off. Luckily, there were many other people coming in, probably trying to pass the time outside until the plane took off, so we weren't singled out and blamed. I sat between Nico and Topaz.

* * *

"Hey, sweetie, your dress is cute."

I huffed. "You know you're not allowed to call me that."

"I know, I'm sorry, but sometimes it's fun to annoy you." I kicked him.

"Ouch, whadja do that for honey."

I say back in my seat. "Okay, now you're just asking for it."

"Nico, did you still want to watch Dracula?" Topaz asked, trying to change the subject.

"You stole it?" I asked.

"She smiled. "I stole ALL the movies, well, except Dora."

"Hmm, actually, I think I want to watch the Shining."

At "I'm not gonna hurt ya Wendy," Steve came up behind us. "Can I interest you in some refreshments, maybe a smoothie or a burger and fries?"

"No thank you," I said. I was actually quite hungry, but I didn't want to eat anything Steve gave me. Maybe we could eat at San Francisco.

"Okay." He said, then walked away. I thought he had left, but he came up behind me, and grabbed my neck. My reflexes kicked in. I ducked and grabbed his wrist and threw him over the seat. Nico tried to stab him in the neck, but it went right through him. "A storm spirit." I said.

"How do we defeat it?"

"We have to surprise him."

He swirled around in a gust of wind to the other side of the plane. Everyone but Annabeth was asleep. I had been right not to take the food he had offered. Most of the mortals were passed out, too, but the ones that weren't were screaming loudly. I breathed on my necklace. It turned blue, and then I faded.

Annabeth did the same with her hat. I pulled a knife out of my bracelet. I was about to stab him, but I noticed more wind spirits coming through the plane doorway. One knocked over a row of seats, nearly crushing Nico. His legs were pinned. I had to start killing them fast. I noticed a few falling, probably Annabeth.

"So," Topaz began. "Could you tell us who you are and why you're trying to kill us please?" One of the female ones laughed. It was pleasant, but crackly, like fire. "We are the followers of the Storm god Notus. He is the bringer of storms in late summer and autumn. He is also known as one of the fire gods. He instructed us to come here."

"So, Notus is helping the monsters now, too? I thought he was on good terms with the gods." She cackled. "This is the fight for all the misfits, all the unwanted of Olympus. We will tear the Olympians down for what they have done to our master."

"So, why does he want us dead? Why are we involved in this?"

A different one spoke. He was a young boy, with fire-red hair and freckles. 'a demon ginger'. "He does not wish you two dead. When the Titans come back, you will be offered."

"How lovely. You know what would be nice? Letting us go. Your numbers are already decreasing. It would be better just to stop, before all of you die. You don't want your family to die, do you? We're not really worth it are we? If Lord Notus really liked you, he wouldn't blame you for one small fail." She paused, letting the charmspeak wash over them.

"Yes, we should let them go." The others muttered in agreement.

"IDIOTS! Do not let the girl's silver tongue trick you! Just kill the demigods and grab the other two! We must please Lord Notus!"

"Where is the other one?" Steve said. "Oh, wait, I smell her! " He struck me and I fell to the ground, dazed. I rolled out of the way before he could grab me. I picked a bad day to wear perfume.

Steve got crushed by a black rock. The only 2 left were the ginger and his mother. He had revealed Annabeth in a gust of hot air. I knew it was only a matter of time before the heat killed her. I ran over, and ginger kid stopped his storm. Annabeth collapsed. I ran over to help her. Then ginger kid grabbed me, not really being a gentleman about it. Nico threw his sword, impaling Ginger Kid. His mother was absorbed in shock, giving Annabeth a chance to go over and decapitate her.

I breathed a sigh of relief, then remembered Nico, who was still trapped under those seats. I went over to help him, but Topaz was already working on it. I pushed the other seats off him. He groaned. "Let me see." I pushed up his jeans. It was red and bruised. "Can you move it?"

"No, I don't think so." Annabeth came over. "I have some Unicorn Drought and Nectar." She dug through her backpack, and pulled out a flask with unicorn drought from Reyna. "Do you have the water?"

"Yes, but it wouldn't heal the bone. It could heal you if your leg fell off and we put it on the bone and the skin-"

"EW!" Annabeth said. "-So unless you want us to amputate you, you'll have to wait 2 hours for the unicorn drought to kick in. If you want some nectar, that might ease the pain." I brought out a flask with the godly drink in it. He wiped his mouth. "Thanks." I helped him up and leveled the seats. I got out the incense board. "What's that?" Annabeth asked.

"Incense potion from Morpheus. When I light it, it will wake up the everyone and erase the mortal's memories of what happened, Topaz, can you go check on the pilot?" She left to make sure he was okay.

The mortals started to wake up, as did our friends. Percy opened his eyes. "What happened?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You guys are idiots is what happened. I told you not to eat the food. I told you he probably put something in it. I told you he was probably a monster. But did you listen? No."

He threw his head back. "We were STARVING! We hadn't eaten for 2 hours!"

"You were not 'starving' Not having eaten for two hours is not a very long time. You would be fine. You could have eaten something when we got there. You could have HELPED us instead of lying there."

That sobered him up a bit. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to put you in danger. I love you."

"I love you, too, Seaweed Brain."

He started to smile, but then he noticed the flaming head on the floor. I would have thought the flames were connected to her life source, and they would die with her. Somehow, they wern't burning the floor, either.

I picked it up, as I was the only one besides Leo who could touch it without being burned. (Topaz wouldn't die, but it would hurt her.)

"We can use it for light. We can put a stick through it, for those of you who can't see in the dark or summon your own flames."

"That's a good idea. Disgusting, but good." Percy said.

I picked up a broken board from some of the plane wreckage, and put the flaming head on it, and stuck it in my bag.

Topaz came back. "The pilot said he wanted to thank us for saving them from the 'terrorist attack' He said he would cover up the story for us."

"Wait, what?" Leo asked.

"He's a demigod. His co-pilot is not. He said we'll, be there in 27 minutes." Nico looked at the others. "Any idea why those 3 are still sleeping?" Percy shook his head. "No clue. I had way more food than them."

"We know you did, Percy." Annabeth said.

"Maybe they had a stronger dose." Topaz suggested. "Probably." Annabeth agreed.

"I'm going to see if I can find the sleeping drought they used. We may be able to make use of it for the quest." I told them.

I walked to the storeroom, where I presumed they made the food for the passengers. There was a lot of things in here, a burger grill, a fryer, a pretzel heater, A nacho cheese dispencer, a couple blenders, a stove, and several refrigerators. There was a rack of cabinets above one of the stoves. There were trays, plates, silverware... Bingo. Pill bottles.

I was about to take it, but something clapped it's hand over my mouth. Leftover storm spirits. Apparently Ginger Kid had a twin brother.

I bit him, and I guess he wasn't expecting that. He let go, and I slashed him through the stomach. I had gotten away, but not unscathed. There were claw marks on my arms, and they didn't seem to be fading like usual. I felt my strength wanning. I grasped the bottles, and ran quickly back to the seats where my friends were before I collapsed.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The injury

Nico Di Angelo

I had never felt more angry than when Snow came back and fell to the ground, with claw marks on her arms, which were not fading.

I at least knew she was alive, I could tell that much. But I couldn't stand to see her like this. She was bleeding everywhere and all I could think was her love of blood, but I don't think even she would approve of this much, especially on herself. Annabeth tried to stop the bleeding with bandages, but it soaked right through. It was probably poisoned. It was strange, though, because I had seen her drink poison before, and it did nothing to her. She liked to do things like that because she could.

"Where's Topaz? She'll be able to help. "

"She's erasing the pilot's memory."

Oh, gods. Not her, too. If she was there, even if one of the pilots was a demigod... I bolted for the engine room. She was there, as promised, lighting a honey scented candle to erases his memories of the storm spirits. There was no sign of a fight. "Topaz, Snow is hurt!"

She looked over with alarm. "How is that even possible? And... how is your leg healed?" I had been so concerned about her, that I had completly forgotten my own injury, which she had so tenderly taken care of.

"Um, I don't know. Maybe the unicorn draught is getting faster. Come on!"

We ran down to where everyone else was sitting. Topaz poured some of the water on the wound, it was closing, the blood being sucked in like a whirlpool. I breathed a sigh of relief. But she still wasn't waking up.

"Some of the poison got into her system. She won't die, but she might be sick for a few days." My fists clenched. I would kill them for this. I would make them suffer. I would impale them, then hang them, then burn them. (Snow came up with this. She called it the 3-way death. It's the longest, most painful death there is.) Then I would go back into the depts of Tartarus to retrieve them, and send them to punishment for eternity.

"Um, Nico. There's bone's following you." Sapphire said. There was a trail of bones littering the floor from the pilots room to where we were.

"How are you doing that? We're in the air?" Blade asked. They knit together to form a full skeleton, which started dancing. "I don't know. I've never done that before. It has to be summoned from the ground."

"So, you can fly?" Percy questioned.

"I guess they're floating up to the plane... I don't know. Does anyone know how to wake her up?"

Topaz smiled. "We can't wake her up when she's just sleeping. You know she's a heavy sleeper. It would be better just to let her rest." I sat down. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"Now boarding, San Francisco, please collect your belongings and vacate the plane, we'll be landing in 2 minutes."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

San Francisco

Nico Di Angelo

When we got off the plane, the airport was very crowded. There were a lot of foul-smelling people in the airport, I hoped that they were only like that from being at the airport for too long, and they weren't all unwashed here.

Snow was in Topaz's bag that held too much stuff (undetectable extension charm, she called it. She did it to all our bags).

When we got out of the airport, we got on one of the buses, even though we didn't know where we were going. When we got our seats, we started talking about where to go. "I think we should go to the Muir Woods. It's a national park here, a redwood forest, and it's likely to have monsters." Annabeth suggested.

Percy nodded solemnly. "That's exactly what we want. Monsters to eat our face." She rolled her eyes. "Percy, they won't eat our face. We'll fight them like always, and then we'll get them to tell us what they're planning."

"What if they just commit suicide?" I asked.

"We won't let them. And if they do, we can just find more."

Topaz twisted one of her rings. "That seems kind of wrong. They're not attacking us, so we're not killing in self defense. We're just like them, hunting others down for fun or information. It is likely that not all of them are even in on the plan."

"Well, it's all we've got, unless you see something."

She shook her head. "My gift was never as strong as Snow's. She hasn't said anything about it, just theories about what she thinks may be happening. When she wakes up, maybe we can ask her."

I noticed that Sapphire, Leo, Blade, and Caspia were also sleeping. Why did he considered them more of a threat than Percy? They might have given me a lot, too, if Snow hadn't been smart enough not to eat it. Maybe they just assumed Percy would eat more food?

When we got there, we stood akwardly in the line of cars. When we got there, there was a barbie doll sitting in the booth. She had a fake tan, bleached hair, bright pink makeup and nails, and her shirt undone and tied at the waist; the shorts far surpassing regulation. Her name tag was clipped to her bulging chest. The only letters I could make out was a "T" at the beggining, and an "I" at the end. I really hated being dyslexic.

She gave us a big fake smile. "Hi! How can I help you?"

"We were going to camp here for the night. Maybe look around a bit? How much?" Sapphire asked groggily. Barbie giggled. I was starting to realy hate her. I wished Thalia was here. She would help us beat her ass. She hates Barbie more than anything in this world.

"You're going to stay here all night? You must be very brave. Or very foolish."

That sent a shiver down my back. I decided to ignore it, though. "How much do we owe you?" I growled. "Let's see, how many of you are there?"

"Can you count?"

She pouted. "Of, course. I just wanted to know if someone else was joining you. There was supposed to be 9..."

I didn't like how much Barbie knew about us. "Okay, that'll be $208.43." Topaz handed her the money. She opened the gates for us, smiling very perky and creepy.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The forest

Nico Di Angelo

We walked around a while, then came to a stop at a clearing in the middle of the woods. There were logs positioned in a circle, a small brook, and a circle of thick trees big enough for something to hide behind. That didn't reassure me.

We set Snow down on one of the logs, and Topaz started passing out food. Olive and pepperoni pizza for Percy; Tacos for Leo; meatless spagetti for Sapphire; cheesesburgers for Annabeth and Topaz; a steak for Blade; Caspia had soup; and she got out ravieoli for me and Snow. We set it next to her, even though she still wasn't awake.

"So, any ideas on what kind of monsters we will find?" Blade asked.

"None," Annabeth said. "We'll just have to find out. We can go looking after we finish eating."

Snow stirred. She sounded like she was talking in her sleep. She had never done that before. Her face was pinched together like she was having a nightmare.

I shook her shoulder gently. "Snow, wake up." Her eyes shot open. I had never felt so relieved. She wrapped her arms around me and cried into my shirt. I held her and stroked her curls. She seemed to pull herself together. "I-I'm sorry. I just had horrible nightmare about something that hapened to me... a long time ago.

"It's okay to cry. Especially about something like that. Don't worry, we'll make sure he never comes back." Topaz came over and hugged her. "Don't worry. We got out of it once, we'll get out of it again. It might not be as bad the second time around, now that we're older."

"Okay, I gotta ask. What are you guys talking about? First that guy on the plane said you would be "offered" and now you're talking about this. What happened with you and the titans? Did they molest you or something?"

"Yes." He looked down. "Um, that was a joke."

I glared at him. He shrunk back.

"It- It's okay, Nico. We were thirteen when it happened. I guess Atlas and Kronos were bored with their own wives. They came up and asked us, and they said if we said no, they would kill our parents. It went on for a long time, until the gods overthrew them. They were overthrew on our hundred and forth birthday. "

"So, it went on for 98 years?" Blade asked. "Yes. After that, several gods asked to marry us-"

"Which ones?" She looked uncomfortable. "Um, Everyone but Annabeth's parent actually. A few others. We decided to remain unmarried at least for a while. For once, they respected someone's wishes on that. I suppose they felt bad for us."

"Wait. My dad proposed to you."

"Um, yes." I was really weirded out. "So you could have been like Persephone, being cheated on then hating me for it."

"Can we talk about something else?" She said, lighting a cigarette with her finger. "You shouldn't smoke when you're healing." Caspia said. "Well, my arm hurts, and you guys are harassing me about something that has haunted me for over 2000 years, so I want to feel better. Besides, it doesn't even hurt me. Tastes like cherries."

"You're going to alert the monsters."

"That's what we want, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess." Percy said.

"I'm starving. Topaz, where's my food?" She rolled her eyes. "Right there at your feet."

"Oh." She started eating the ravioli.

Percy was continuing to make Topaz create more pizza for him.

"I really don't want to go out with a fat guy." Annabeth sighed. "I'm not fat, Annabeth." She looked exasperated. "No, but you will be soon if you don't stop eating so much."

He rolled his eyes and shoved a piece of Pizza in her mouth. "Yes, Annabeth, do you see now why I can't stop eating? That pizza is worth getting fat for. Do you understand now, Annabeth?"

She spat the pizza in his face. "Gah! You got the point in my eye!" She smiled. "Good."

"Okay, I'm done. We can go now." Percy frowned. "I thought you were waiting on me?"

"No, seaweed brain, you've already eaten plenty. Snow hasn't eaten anything today." I cleared my throat. "Let's go. Snow, your bag. Can you get the head for the others?"

"Yeah." She brought it out and handed it to them. "Okay, should we do groups? Or should we stay together?"

"I think we should break into groups of three. That way, it's the right number. Okay, Me, Nico, Snow; Caspia, Percy, Annabeth; Leo, Sapphire, and Blade."

"Okay, Percy's group should get the head because Sapphire, Nico, Topaz and me can see in the dark and Leo can summon flames."

"I feel like the useless group."

"Yeah, me, too."

Snow slipped her hand into mine. "Let's go."

We walked out of the clearing with Topaz. It really was a beautiful forest, especially at night. From the towering trees, to the trails to the wildlife and the gaping rivers, it was really pretty, and somehow mysterious. It reminded me of the barbie doll at the booth for some reason. I don't know why, she was neither beautiful nor interesting. Maybe just instincts or... she's a monster, I realized.

"Hey, guys," I said. "Do you remember the Barbie doll at the entrance? I think she might be a monster."

"I know." They both said at once. They looked at each other. Snow spoke. "I think she's an emposai."

"Indeed," Came a voice from the darkness. It was Barbie. "I am Tammi, aprentice of the senior Emposai Kelli. And I am here to kill you, male. I am NOT a Barbie doll. And now I will feast on your flesh, drink your blood, and take the two girls to my master."

Her fake tan paled to bone white. Her plasticy face withered into a hags.

She bared her fangs and lunged.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The monsters

Nico Di Angelo

I sidestepped her jump, and rolled to the ground.

"Stop!" Snow shouted. A simple command, and it worked, even on an emposai.

"Why are you helping the Titans? What did they ever do for you? It wasn't until they needed your help that they decided to help you with your regeneration. Remember the last Titan war? They recruited the monsters to help them with the war, and did they care at all when you died? So many of you died, and they only cared about winning. They do not care for you now, either. It would be better just to stay with your lady Hecate and follow her orders instead of changing loyalties. She cares about you. She formed you. You should rely on her instead of going against her orders." Snow said, her voice dripping with honey.

It seemed like she had struck a nerve. But she tilted her head, and laughed. "Are you trying to encourage me to kill you? It's because of the Titan lord's orders that we've kept you alive. Do you wish to die? The boy will die either way. You cannot change that. But you need not suffer. Let me kill him, and then come with me, and all will be well. Submitt and it will go over easier. Unless you want me to kill you."

"You cannot kill me. It is impossible."

She snarled. "No? The drakon poison runs through your veins, and you have been weakened. I could easily kill you with the state you are in."

Snow paled and she turned her attention towards me. "How come you look like that?" I asked stupidly.

"HOW DARE YOU!" I laughed shakily. "No, I just heard from the myths that emposai were supposed to turn beautiful, to make men fall in love with them, so they wouldn't resist them killing them. Why didn't you do that?"

"I was beautiful before, remember?" I snorted. She grew angrier.

"If you must know, I assumed my true form because you are utterly infatuated with that one." She jabbed a finger at Snow.

"It would not work, and I would be humiliated. My sisters would tease me for millennia! Now, enough talk. I'm hungry!" I rolled away again. Topaz tackled her and sliced her hands off, so that she couldn't use her claws. She screamed, opening her mouth so that she could cut out her teeth. "So, what's your plan?"

"I will not tell you!" She shrugged. "Suit yourself." She sliced off a chunk of her arm with her knife. She screamed again. "Want to tell us now? It can be quick or long and painful. Your choice."

"Okay! I'll tell you! We're planning to kidnap Thanatos again! Please kill me!"

"No. How are you going to lure him?" She screached. "They didn't tell me that. As you said, we're just pawns in the big picture. They don't tell us things like that!"

"Liar!" She cleaved off one of her legs, the donkey one. She screamed again. If she hadn't made me so angry, I might have felt sory for her. "Now do you want to tell us?"

"No, but I will!"

"Go on." The demon swallowed. "We are going to steal his ipad." I laughed. "Death has an ipad?" Snow looked at me, all seriously. "Doesn't everyone?"

"How are you going to steal it?"

She rolled her eyes in her head. "Well, he always leaves his ipad on the charger in his cave, which is right next to one of the entrances to the Underworld. We were going to leave a ransom note, and tell him to meet us at the Leathe to get it back!"

"What if he just told Hades on you? Or bought a new ipad? Doesn't he have a backup?"

"He cannot buy another ipad! He keeps all the dead's names on it, the way they died and which souls he needs to capture. It would take centuries to download it all again! And anyway, he can't buy another ipad without saving up. They are very expensive, even for death."

"But what if-" Topaz slashed her knife through her. "That's all we'll need from you."

"So much for being nice to the monsters." I snorted.

"Everything that applied to being able to kill monsters was there. She attacked us, she was doing it for fun, and she even was going to eat you."

"Yeah, but you were a bit overkill."

"Whatever Nico."

"Hey, Nico! Evil ghost chasing us! Help!" Caspia yelped.

I simply glared at him, and he stopped chasing them and looked down sheepishly. "Be gone." I opened the ground, and he fell in.

"Um, can you heal the ground or something? This is a national landmark after all." Caspia said.

"I don't know," I said, confused. "I've never tried." I looked at the ground and pictured it knitting together. It complied.

"Is that why there's a crack in the floor of the dining hall?" I smiled crookedly. "Yeah, I guess I'll have to fix that when we get back."

Percy looked at the pile of disemboweled monster limbs as if he was just now realizing they were there. "Gross, why is there broken hands, a donkey leg, a strip of flesh and bloody sharp teeth?"

"Topaz tortured an emposai. We got the information though." I reasoned.

"What are they doing?" Annabeth asked, troubled.

"I'll tell you when everyone is with us." She furrowed her brow. "Where are they?"

I fixed my eyes on the shadowed horizon. "Let's go find them." We searched all through the woods, but there was no sign of them anywhere.

"Maybe they fell in the Labyrith," I wondered.

"I don't know."

"Did we check the campsite?" Topaz suggested. Percy and Annabeth simultaneously slapped their foreheads. "Of, course."

They were sitting on the logs, reading Muir Woods brochures. "What? You were here the whole time?" Caspia said, angry.

"At least they're reading," Annabeth noted.

"Fuck, Sapphire! We thought a monster was eating you ar something! And you were sitting here reading!" I said.

"You are very concerned with our well being," Sapphire said.

"There are small children here." Leo stated. "Watch the language."

"Thanks for caring about the other two."

"Leo, shut up; Blade I'm sorry for not mentioning you; And Sapphire, What do you mean I don't care about you?"

"You seemed mad that we were okay. Like you didn't like that you couldn't help us."

"Hey, I'm not Percy. I don't need to 'be a hero' to make myself feel good. I just want you to be okay."

"Scuse Me-" Percy started.

"There is no sense in fighting like children. All we should worry about is that we are okay, and we are all here together. Unharmed. Just calm down and pass me a cigarette."

"What we do need to worry about is what to do with the emposai spoils of war. What can we do with cut off limbs and teeth?" Annabeth asked.

Leo scratched his head. "We can use the teeth as a weapon. We could put it on a piece of metal, and make a knife out of it. It might work to kill monsters, like with Annabeth's Drakon Bone sword. At the word Drakon, Snow winced. Then she relaxed and took a sip of wine. "So, who was the ghost who was chasing you?"

"Oh, it was a hiker that was killed by some thieves in the 20's while he was on the trail." Percy said. Her eyes widened.

"Now, we're scared of death, are we?" Leo asked condescendingly.

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "No, that ghost would not have chased you if he was not working for Kronos. They can be violent, but its usually towards the person who killed them or someone who caused it in another way. There is no way that you fall into any of those catagories. That means that the dead are on their side now, too. If they stop death, all of the spirits will pour into the earth. That would cause utter chaos. Can you imagine that? A world where no one dies, ever. There would be serious overcrowding. People would starve. Crime would skyrocket. And they would keep suffering, because there was no death. He has twisted the minds of the dead, so that they would want to work for him in exchange for life. I'm not even sure Nico would be able to control them."

I stared at her. "Why wouldn't I be able to? I am the son of Hades." She twisted the purple ring on her finger. "That may not matter anymore. The spirits are under a different sphere of control. If Hades is overthrown-"

"He is not going to be overthrown!"

"Nico-"

"Did you see something?" She shook her head. "No. My vision is clouded from the future. The only way to predict the outcome is logic and human nature."

"So, what do you think will happen?" She took a shaky breath.

"The odds are not in his favor."

"What? Is there anything we can do?"

"We can keep going. And we can warn Thanatos. If it is not too late."

"I'll IM him. Anyone have a drachma?" Blade said, looking handed him one.

"O Iris, Goddess of the rainbow, please accept this offering. Show us Thanatos in the Underworld."

He tossed the coin into the rainbow. The image appeared. Thanatos was running around his cave, tearing it apart looking for something. He didn't seem to notice us.

"Um, Lord Thanatos. Are you okay?" Sapphire asked. He looked for the speaker. When he saw the image he came over with a crazed look in his eyes. "Have you seen my ipad?"

"No, Thanatos. We are here to warn you." Topaz said. His eyes widened. "Warn me about what?"

"Do NOT go to the Leathe to get your ipad. There is a note telling you to do that, but do NOT listen to it. It's a trap. The monsters and Titans are trying to get you so they can stop death." Annabeth said.

"Well, that sounds most unpleasant. But as of now, I really do need it. So many souls to catch, not to mention my high score for Candy Crush is on there."

"Snowflake, do you have any ideas on other ways to get it back?" I asked her.

"Well, first of all, do NOT ask Hades for help. This may not be a trap for you, but for him. They may have intended for Tammi to die and give us false information. But you still shouldn't bring the furies, either. They might want them. Your best bet is to get someone to steal it, someone they don't want. Find a dead child of Mercury or Hermes and tell him you will grant him Elysium if he helps you. Be careful getting there. They could have anticipated you refusing their offer and going for otherwise help from others. And remember, It is important to keep your promise to the child of thieves. They will be able to tell if you are lying. Tread carefully, but do not get other major figures of the Underworld to help you. Remember what I said." She slashed through it.

"Okay, let's go to sleep." Sapphire said, drowsy.

Topaz pulled sleeping bags and pillows out and arranged them in a circle. When I finally got to sleep, I dreamed I was in the Underworld. Hades was on his throne, talking to one of his zombie guards. "So, Thanatos wasn't captured?"

"No, he got a son of Mercury to get his iPad back."

"And he sent him to Elysium, without mine or the judges approval."

"Yes, sir."

"Why did he do that. Is he the ruler of the Underworld? No. He is the God Of death. His job is to bring souls back, not to decide their fate; He must be punished for this. "

"But if you punish him, it will stop death. That's what they want."

"Yes, I suppose. Any news on Hazel's quest? Is she okay?"

"Yes, my Lord. But perhaps we should take her off it. She cannot defend herself as well as the other two."

"True enough. Nico, can you ask her to give up her quest with Zhang and that Dakota boy?"

"You knew I was here?"

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, dear boy. Answer the question."

"Yeah, I think she'll listen to me. I don't want her to get hurt."

"Nor do I, son. I would like you to go see her in her dreams. After that it will transition automatically to the next part."

"What do I need to see?" I asked, but I was already fading.

I was in Hazel's dream. She was with a boy who looked just like Leo. 'Sammy.' I remembered.

"Hazel." I said. She turned and Sammy faded. Then the surroundings changed as well. There were on a long grass plain that looked like a battlefield. Dakota, Frank, and Hazel lay sleeping on the grass. Her right arm was in a cast. Dream Hazel motioned for him to sit down.

"What happened to you?"

"I broke my wrist in a fight with a manticore."

"Oh, sorry, ugh I hate those things."

"So what did you want to tell me, Nico?"

"You need to abandon your quest to- wait what are you doing?" She suppressed a smile. "We're trying to find the spear of Mars." She answered.

"Wait, why was it stolen?" I asked stupidly.

"They're trying to control war. As if they could barter with Mars." Hazel snorted

"You need to abandon the quest and return to Camp Jupiter. You'll be safe there."

"The gods do not take kindly to being ignored. Especialy about their symbols of power."

"Please, Hazel. I can't lose you too." I said, frustrated.

She pursed her lips. "Nico, I have to. The Romans don't like it when people back out of fights, especialy something as important as a quest. I might be exiled, or perhaps executed out of shame for the Roman name. Executed by your friends is a lot worse than killed by a monster."

"Eaten by a monster."

"Nico, please."

I raised my hands. "I guess there's no changing your mind. At least, promise me you'll be safe."

"I will. I love you."

"Love you, too."

The image faded. It turned into a darkened forest, with a strange mixture of trees, some barren and pointed, while others were full of life and bursting with delicious looking fruit. I was standing at the foot of a very tall apple tree, and I could hear voices from its highest branch. I decided to climb it, so I could hear them better. I was about to grab the bottom branch, but a gust of wind propelled me up, and I was floating in front of where the voices were coming from.

I looked in the branch and saw the backs of two blonde girls with thick pretty ringlets. I balanced myself and sat behind them. One of the girls turned, and I realized it was Snow. Her face, was even more beautiful now, because she had no makeup on, and you could actually see what her face looked like.

No one can really understand this unless they've seen Snow or Topaz, but seeing them... changes you. Looking at them fills you with a warm feeling, and you're reminded of all the prettiest things you've ever seen. All your happiest memories. But you're fazed by the those big eyes, perfect ivory skin, and blood red lips. I've often seen people gape at them when they first meet them, shocked, because they've never seen anything like it. Kind of like seeing a room full of gold and precious gems.

It fades when you get used to it, but they still appears to be glowing slightly.

But nothing does compare to them. I've never seen Aphrodite, but I'm positive she'd be a shadow compared to them (no pun intended).

They were singing and braiding flowers into crowns, wearing light blue dresses of silk, their necks incircled with diamonds. I had never heard either of them sing before. The song was in Greek, I could tell, but I didn't so much catch the words as pay attention to the way the words flowed, like raindrops falling on a soft bed of roses. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't stop thinking about flowers. I thought of fields of violets and daisys, poppies and lilies.

They stopped singing. I realized they were influencing my thoughts with their song. I knew that she could charmspeak, but she preferred not to, wanting to use her wits instead of a sweet voice.

"How far do you think that carried?" Topaz asked.

"Few miles... I think we're getting better."

"I wonder who will come looking this time." Topaz smirked.

"We really shouldn't keep doing that. It will start to attract all kinds of strange people." Snow chided her sister.

"Yeah, you are probably right. There's not many people around, but it's not all that safe. You never know when a Titan might pop up."

Snow finished her crown of aqua blue lilies. She placed it on Topaz's head. Upon her own was a crown of blue roses.

"Come on. We should get back. Before Albanius comes looking." They climbed down the tree and started walking. I was about to do the same, but I fell to the ground on my arm. It hurt even in a dream.

They started down the path, Topaz walking normally, and Snow skipping and twirling around with her basket of flowers. I realized that Snow was probably the younger twin. I had always assumed Topaz was younger, because Snow was a little more mature and usually collected. But apparently not. They were both about 13.

Topaz began to sing a song about the smiling face of the fox on his way to hunt, which sounded oddly like a campfire song. They finally exited the woods and arrived at a large stone cave with emerald green curtains drawn over the entrance, like a low budget door.

Snow pranced through the curtains. "Mother, Father! We're home!" She said once they were inside. The interior sloped down a ramp and was surprisingly spacious. It looked like very luxurious, covered with Jade rugs, colorful paintings, and gilded torches, along with very plush furniture. It looked kind of like the inside of the lamp in _I dream of Jeannie._

A boy about eighteen appeared from a hallway from the right of the main room. He was a pretty good looking guy, (probably runs in the family), but he didn't look too much like the twins. He had wavy nearly shoulder length jet black hair, pale skin, very high cheekbones, arched eyebrows covered with bangs, and Snows eyes, but a much darker color.

"You're late." He told them in an I-told-you-so voice.

"Sorry, we ran into some wood sprites." Topaz lied.

"It's dark. It has been dark for some time. You promised to be back before the sun went down. You know what that means."

They both groaned.

"That's right. You have to stay inside for a week." He said with triumph.

"Now, now Albanius, go easy on them. Remember the time those wood sprites attacked you?" An unseen mans voice said.

His informed attitude faded in an instant and he paled significantly. "But Father, I'm just trying to keep them safe. I don't want them getting snatched up by those bullying Titans. They're still so young."

"It's nice to know you care Albus." Snow said sweetly.

"Of course I care. You're still my baby sisters."

"We are not babies. We are 13 and a half. We are about to come of age." Topaz snapped.

"That's right. Soon they'll get married and you won't have to keep an eye on them anymore. But in the meantime, you will go with them when they go out to play from now on."

He turned into a total teenager. "But Father, I was going to go Fishing with Cade and Nanim tomorrow!"

The man, their Father stepped into the light. He had the pretty much the same face as his son, but he had flowing locks of a goldenish color, and startlingly green eyes. He had a much crueller aura around him than his son.

"You will go with them, or you will do all the chores for two weeks and I will give the servants a vacation."

"Amathyst is going." Snow reminded him.

He softened a bit. He seemed to like this Amathyst girl. "Well, alright, but the day after tomorrow you two have to come fishing with my friends and I instead of playing or doing whatever it is you do all day."

"I am not killing any animals." Snow insisted.

"Then just sit by the water." Albanius suggested with a roll of his eyes.

"Fine by me, your friends are cute." Topaz said.

"Alright, it's settled. Let's go eat. Your Mother prepared lamb and roast carrots."

They all walked down the hallway that went straight from the entrance. I could smell the food, even in a dream. They all sat down on tall stools around a wooden table.

Their dad went into the kitchen to help their Mother bring the food out.

I hadn't expected men from this time to be so respectful of women. But he was being a perfect gentleman, helping his wife bring the dishes out.

Their mother looked exactly like them, except she had big starry blue eyes, kind of like a clear midnight. I had always thought that about Snow's eyes, but hers were purple, like only some nights look like. If I looked into them long enough, I swear I can make out constellations.

They placed the dishes on the table and the Father told Snow to go get a bucket of water from the well. She got up hastily, glad to be able to go outside.

She skipped out the back door, where there was a large well, smack in the center of the valley. She walked over to it, singing a beautiful song about water nymphs keeping the water clean. She looked so pretty in the moonlight and I was so focused on her that I didn't notice a tall dark figure standing at the top of the hill, watching her. She seemed to notice him, and she paled, but didn't stop singing, not wanting to give any indication she knew he was there.

She changed her song to a hymn about chastity and he cleared off a little. She continued to sing, and walked calmly through the door, pushing the thin Boulder back into place with hardly any effort. She ran back through the house to the table, and I thought she would tell them, but she didn't. She just ate her dinner quickly and ran off to her room.

She apparently shared a room with Topaz, probably by choice considering how close they were. The stone walls were draped in lengths of black silk, and the cold stone floor was embezzled with rubies. In the center were two thin futon-like beds, covered in diamonds, with sheets as blood red as their lips.

She laid on her bed, and fiddled with a little wooden doll, then her fingers shot purple sparkles on it, and as they swirled around it, the doll took in color, and shook its head like it was waking up. She had fiercely blue hair, dark eyes and a white dress.

"Hi, Magnolia." Snow said to her with a smile.

"Hello, Snow. So good to see you again. But every time I come back, it gets harder to wake up."

"Sorry. I don't know how to fix that." She paused. "Albanius chewed my sister and I out today. We got back after dark, and he got angry. He said he doesn't want us to get hurt. I used to think it wasn't a big deal, and that we were safe in isolation with no Titans over here, but when I was getting the water from the well, someone was watching me. A tall man cloaked in darkness. What do you think he wanted?"

Magnolia huffed gruffly. "Obviously he found you beautiful. Look at you. Who wouldn't? He wanted to make you his own. You should stay inside. Just don't go outside under any circumstances, at least for a little while. Maybe 2 weeks. Tell Topaz to do the same. She looks just like you. The borders of the cave keep any unwanted intruders from entering. Be careful. Your sister is coming. I'd better go." She turned back into a wooden doll and Snow looked disappointed.

Topaz walked in and sat on her bed. "What's wrong?"

"How did you know something was wrong?"

"You saw something outside that scared you. You ran in and didn't touch your water. What was it?"

She took a long breath. "When I was getting water at the well, I was singing a song. Remember earlier when we said that our singing could attract all kinds of strange people? Well, I saw a tall figure like a shadow. The moonlight didn't seem to glance off him. He was watching me, and I could tell he was about to advance, so I switched to a song about chastity and respecting women. He seemed to back off a little, and I came back in the house. I ate very fast, and came in here to talk to Magnolia."

"...And, what did she say?"

"She said for us to stay inside for a while, maybe two weeks, because the borders protect us from intruders."

"Hang on, why am I in danger, too?"

"Because you look like me. She said he thought I was beautiful."

"Do you really think we're going to stay inside for that long? Do you know how boring that will be? We'll be fine. It'll be at least 4 against 1 tomorrow. He won't be able to get any of us. Besides, I doubt he's as scary in the daylight."

"O-okay. Good night."

"Good night."

Topaz got in her own bed and blew the light out. The next thing I saw was Snow back on the hill. She was singing that first song she sang, and then the dark figure appeared. She tried to sing the second song, but her voice didn't work. In a flash, suddenly she was bound to the rocks.

The figure smiled maniacally and laughed loudly. He progressed toward her, and she struggled against her bonds, but she didn't scream. She never was that type of girl. He was right next to her now, and her eyes were wide.

Then the picture faded and Snow woke up. She ran her fingers through her hair, and got out of bed. I wondered where she was going. She walked past several hallways, until she arrived at an emerald green curtained "door."

She drew back the curtains and walked into the room. She tiptoed softly and stood by a bed. I realized Albanius was sleeping in it. This was his room. "Wake up, Albus, wake up." She said softly.

He rolled over. "Whatever could you want at this ungodly hour of the night?"

"You could open your eyes when you're talking to me."

"If I open my eyes, I'll never sleep again."

"Oh, well, okay. I had a nightmare."

"What about?"

"Well, it was scary because it was based on something that happened earlier."

"You mean when you got in trouble when you got home late?"

"No, I saw something outside."

"Please get to the point, sweet butterfly."

"When I was getting the water for dinner, I saw a tall dark figure watching me from the top of the hill. He was attracted to my singing I think and Magnolia said he wanted to take me."

He opened his eyes. "I shall go outside. If he is still there I will kill him, immortal Titan or not." He said, getting out of bed.

"No, don't do that. Magnolia said just to stay inside until he forgets about me."

"Darling look at you. No one will ever find another girl who looks like that. I'm sure Aphrodite herself would be envious."

"Aphrodite is real?"

"Of course, butterfly, she was born from Ouranous's blood when the four Titan brothers killed him."

"Please don't go outside. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I am GOING outside, and if you try to follow I will have to tie you down. So stay here. Go back to your room. Get some sleep."

She didn't move. "Go now."

She sighed and walked down the hall. He threw on a toga-like thing over his nightshirt, and grabbed his sword.

He walked calmly out the back door, moving the boulder with as much ease as Snow had. He pushed it back into place, and drew the sword. He scanned the surrounding area, and then ran up the hill in the exact place he had been standing. There were footprints where he had stood, but not a trace anywhere else.

He closed his eyes and started walking blindly to the left of the hill. He kept going for what must've been miles until he stopped. He sent a purple mist past the coast. It swirled and Albanius smirked with satisfaction.

"There, now at least he won't remember her." He left and started to return to the cave.

The image faded.

The next one was Topaz, Snow and Albanius outside the front door of the cave. They were wearing black today. So what exactly is it that you two do all day?"

"We like to go to the woods and pick flowers." Topaz said.

"Well bunny, look how that worked out yesterday. What is your second choice?"

"We could go to the creek and swim." Snow suggested.

"Alright let's get Amathyst and Cade."

"What about Nanim?" Snow asked.

"He's sick, butterfly."

"Oh, well let's go get them."

The image faded again.

The next one was the 3 of them and two other people. The one I assumed to be Amathyst was a very pretty auburn haired girl with hazel eyes. Albanius was sitting with her at the edge of the creek, but I couldn't hear what they were talking about.

Topaz was flirting with Cade a dark haired boy with blue eyes. Snow was bored, because her friend was with her brother, and her sister was with a guy. She got up and scampered through the trees.

She found a rose bush with orange flowers, and started to pick them, but a man crept up behind her and clamped his hand over her mouth. She was much younger then and probably didn't know how to fight back.

He started dragging her away. Her eyes were wide with fear, and then they narrowed. She made a flame on her hand and burned his arm. He howled in pain, and she started to run away, but she froze. Literally. I realized this was probably Kronos, who could bend time to his will.

"It's no use lovely girl. You belong to me." He said and advanced on her.

The image faded and I woke up. I saw Snow next to me, sleeping soundly. I wondered what had happened after that.


	15. Chapter 15

Staff of Hades

Chapter 15

Blade Roberts

I had dreamed that I was back at Clear Creek. Caspia was being devoured by Lamia. I tried to help her, but I couldn't move. Then it shifted. I was at a grand palace, where several twenty foot tall people were talking; two men and a woman in a long white dress and armor were arguing about something. I got closer and realized that one of them was Ares. One of others was a guy with curly brown hair, a jogging outfit, and winged reboks. "If I don't get my shield and spear back, I'm gonna take it out on your kids, Hermes!"

"Just because something was stolen does not mean it was me or one of my children!" Hermes exclaimed.

"I do not agree," Said the woman in a stern voice. "Hermes, The last time a symbol of power was taken, it was by one of your children. Luke Castellan sparked a war that lasted 4 years, killed hundreds of demigods, and then branched out another 2 years for the giant war. Gaea would not have woken without the Titan war. However, Ares, do not act rashly. You should figure out who stole it, or wait for the 3 questers to find out, but do not take it out on all of them. It is possible that it was not a child of Hermes, but you should ask Chiron and Reyna to interogate their inhabitants before you kill anyone. And when we find out, either the demigods will kill them, or we will convey a council meeting. You will not kill them yourself. That would make Zeus... most angry."

"Shut up, Athena! I'll kill whoever I want to, you don't tell me what to do!" He screamed.

"It would not end well for you." She said.

"What the hell will happen, if you're so smart?" He sneered.

"Many outcomes, but most likely, you will end up with many demigods very angry with you. They will hate you with a passion, not just the way they do, now." She said.

"No one hates me!" He yelled.

"Yes they do," Hermes put in.

"Oh, yeah, you should be talking, the useless god! God of thieves, messengers and travelers! Nobody likes you, no one sacrifices to you besides your own kids! You're pathetic!"

"You just proved why everyone hates you." He said plainly.

"Shut the fuck up, Hermes! I am the god of war! People sacrifice to me for victory! Glory! Satisfaction! Who sacrfices to you, for a good job stealing, or a nice time on vacation! No one likes you!" Ares screamed.

"At least my family likes me. And many mortals hated you because you killed people they loved. They only asked you for help so that they would get what they wanted, not because they liked you. They just wanted to keep the people they did care about safe."

He stood. "I will make you pay for that one, you Wing-footed motherfucker! Did you have a nice time with Leto?" Hermes drew his sword. "How about you and Hera? Does Zeus know?" Hermes snickered.

"Stop this! You need to stop fighting and talking abut intercourse with your mothers!" Athena exclaimed.

They continued fighting and arguing while Athena tried to stop them.

Then the dream shifted to Caspia again. It was when she was about six years old, her hair as red as ever, and she was out with her mother buying ice cream. Lizzie looked like an older version of her, no more than 24. While she licked her pink cone, a man came up to Lizzie. He had a deep tan, black hair, and sea-green eyes.

Lizzie's smile turned into guarded anger. "Poseidon. I did not expect to see you again." He raised his hands. "Elizabeth, you have every right to be angry with me. I left you when Caspia was a month old. But if I hadn't done that, Amphitrite would have killed you and our daughter."

"Do not make excuses. The very least you could have done was to at least send some money or something while I was struggling to support my family."

"I am sorry, Elizabeth. But I am here to help you. Zeus has found out about the child. He knows that I have broken my agreement not to have children. I already broke it with another child, my son who I have persuaded Zeus not to harm, but he will not do the same with two children. So we have two options. You and Caspia can come with me to the sea, where Amphitrite's anger will be strong. Or we can neglect to send Caspia to Camp Half-Blood. She can stay with you for a longer time." He looked over at Caspia, who was running from a bird who was trying to steal her ice cream. "A lovely child."

"If she's so lovely, then why couln't you keep her?" He sighed. "Elizabeth, I told you, I had to do it to keep you safe. I do still care about both of you. When Caspia starts seeing the monsters, promise me you will send her to a mental hospital. I will place someone at Clear Creek who will keep her safe. But make sure she thinks that she is actually insane. Otherwise it will not work. Promise me."

"I-I promise."

"Good. I love you Elizabeth." Caspia had escaped the bird and came over to see who Lizzie was talking to. "Lizzie, who's this?" She looked at her daughter. "This is your father." Her eyes lit up. "He came back for us?" She shook her head. "He is not staying. He is a very bad man." Her face fell. "But, Lizzie, you said-" She cut her off. "I know what I said. But I was wrong. Come on, let's go back to the apartment. We can rent a movie if you'd like." She furrowed her brow. "Oh-Okay Lizzie."

She looked at Poseidon coldly and took Caspia's hand. "Good-bye Poseidon. I don't think I'll be seeing you again."

"Bye Daddy! I hope Lizzie's wrong and we'll see you again. You seem nice." He smiled. "I hope so too." The dream faded and I went on in a dreamless sleep.

When I woke up, Snow and Nico were speaking in hushed tones, and appeared to be arguing. I couldn't make it out. I pretended to be asleep so I wouldn't disturb them and the others sleeping. After a while, they stopped fighting and Snow pulled out a notebook and started drawing in it. Nico laid his head down and went back to sleep. I thought about my dreams. I wondered who the people on the other quest were. I hoped they found my Dad's spear, so that he wouldn't kill Hermes' children. I thought about the little girl, and how different she was now. Oddly similar, though. I just still couldn't believe that Poseidon had told her to tell her daughter she was crazy. It had hurt her in many ways. She was very smart, and she didn't like that people overlooked that because of her diagnosis .

She had never believed it, though. When they had compared notes on what they had both seen, her suspicions had been confirmed. They had seen similar monsters and had the same "condition." She spent a lot of time in the library, trying to understand what the thing she saw were. She had shared what she found in the Greek Mythology books. Hydras, Hellhounds, Empousai, Cyclops, Lastrigonians, Gods , Hippocampi, Peagusai, and a lot more gruesome monsters as well. She had blatantly decided then that she was not crazy. I had always enjoyed talking to her. She was a fun person, even with the horrible things that had happened to her.

Her eyes opened. "Morning, Ariel." She blinked groggily. "Ariel?"

"Yes." She rolled her eyes. "Okay, Sinclair." Leo, who apparently was awake, grinned. "Your name is Sinclair?" She smiled. "Actually it's Sinclair Woodsworth Roberts." I covered her mouth, but the damage was done.

Everyone but Snow was laughing at me. She, I suppose, was more mature. "I think it's a cool name," She said sketching something with her black pencil "Though not as cool as Blade. You should keep going by that." Nico rolled his eyes. "Of course you think it's a cool name rich girl." She stared at him, like 'do you really want to keep arguing with me? I'm already mad at you.' I was surprised that I recognized her expresion. Topaz looked at her curiously and she looked at her like 'I'll tell you later.'

"So, where do we need to go today?" Leo asked, at least after he had recovered from his giggling. Snow looked at Percy and Annabeth appraisingly. "When they wake up, we can go to Alcatraz. That would be our best bet."

"Do you guys want to get coffee first?" Topaz yawned.

"That sounds good," Sapphire said. "I want a cotton candy latte."

"So, we're going to Starbucks? Can I get a donut? Let's wake them up, now!" Before we could stop him, he got between Percy and Annabeth and screamed in their ears.

"HEY! WAKE UP! WE'RE GETTING COFFEE!" Leo screamed. Annabeth punched him in the face.

"Ow! I think you broke my nose!" She opened her eyes.

"Good." Percy nodded with approval. "You deserved that."

"Nice friends." He grumbled.

"You're a nice friend for scaring us like that." Percy countered.

"Whatever, lets get some coffee to clense my nose." Leo said, rubbing his bruised face.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Starbucks

Blade Roberts

They left the park and got on a ferry to the main part of San Fransisco. We went to a Starbucks on Fulton Street . We got our coffee and sat down. "So, where are we going first?" Caspia asked timidly. Snow twisted her ring. "I think we should go to Alcatraz. There was a group of men who escaped, one of which was the son of Poseidon. There might be echos that could tell us something."

Leo stared at her. "You mean Echo, that nymph from Salt Lake?"

"No, I mean remmenants of spirits who died in Alcatraz. Nico, is Frank Morris dead?" He shook his head, "He's still alive, but I doubt he'd be able to help us. If he escsaped from Alcatraz, he would stay as far away from it as he could, no matter how long it had been. They're still trying to find him today."

"If we knew where he was, we could IM him. Anyone have any ideas where he could be?" Topaz questioned, and everyone shook their heads.

Snow arched her eyebrows. "He stole a car when he escaped. If we could figure out where it went, we might have some idea." She paused. "When we get there I might be able to get it from visions."

I cleared my throat. "So, anything else intersting happening?"

"Blade, why don't you tell Caspia about your dream."

My face felt hot. "How-how did you know about that?" Nico smiled weirdly. "I can dream jump. I saw a little of what you saw when I was passing through. Don't worry, I mostly just saw the gods meeting."

Annabeth looked at him. "Tell us about the dream." I looked around. "Um, maybe we should wait for Leo to come back from the bathroom, and Sapphire to stop yelling at the employees." At the counter, Sapphire was screaming at a guy with a nametag that read "Todd."

"YOU ARE NOT CHARGING ME TEN WHOLE DOLLARS FOR THIS PIECE OF CRAP! YOU GAVE ME FUCKING BUTTERSKOTCH! I ASKED FOR FRICKING PEPPERMINT! I WILL NOT BUY TWO CUPS OF COFFEE BECAUSE YOU HAVE AN UNCAPABLE STAFF!" He looked nervous. "Please Ma'am, there are kids here. Please calm down, we'll only charge you for the one and you can keep both."

"DON'T CALL ME MA'ME YOU BOZO BASTARD! I AM NOT AN OLD LADY!"

"You go girl." Topaz said.

"Sapphire, sweetheart, calm down." Leo put his hand on her shoulder. She turned on him. "NOT YOU TOO! YOU'RE TAKING TODD FROM HELL'S SIDE?! I THOUGHT OUR RELATIONSHIP MEANT MORE TO YOU!"

He leaned on the counter. "Please, just apologize for calling her ma'am, and give her coffee quickly. It's the only way she'll stop."

"I'M NOT CRAZY DICKFACE!" He sighed. "I didn't say you were, Sapphire."

"IT WAS IMPLIED!"

"No, it wasn't. Tell you what, I'll let you throw the bad coffee at demon-todd." Her eyes lit up. "Really?" He nodded "Go ahead." She took the lid off and threw it at his face. "AH, HOT COFFEE! I'LL REPORT YOU FOR WORKER ABUSE!"

"Here's your coffee, miss." She huffed. "Finally, someone who knows what they're doing."

"Um, did you burn his face?" She blinked innocently. "No, of course not. I would never hurt anyone. I'm strictly against violence."

"Uh, weren't you yelling at him and your boyfriend, and teaching little children curse words?"

"Thank you for the coffee, we'll be going now. EVERYBODY, LET'S GO." We all ran out of the store and down several blocks until we had distanced ourselves enough from the coffee shop.

"Well, that was...an adventure" Leo said. Snow seemed completly unfazed.

"So, Blade, your dream." She prompted.

That brought me back to my senses. "Oh, yeah. Um, well, the first bit started as a nightmare. The second part was the Athena, Ares, and Hermes arguing. My dad was blaming Hermes' kids for his spear and shield, his symbol of power, being stolen. There is a quest of Romans trying to find it. Frank Zhang, Nico's sister Hazel Levesque, and that Dakota kid who always has kool-aid on his face. They havn't been successful yet, and Ares thinks that one of Hermes' children took it. He's threatening to kill all of Hermes' offspring if it's not returned."

Snow rolled her eyes. "Idiot. How will he ever get it back if the ones who have it are destroyed. What he needs is some good old-fashioned torture-"

"That's cruel." Annabeth said. She straightend. "Not after the shit they do to people."

"You're just still upset about when they-"

"SHUT UP, NOW." Nico slumped. "Okay, sorry."

"Okay, before we were interupted by Snow's inasnity-" Nico rose. "Do NOT ever call her crazy."

"Yeah, sorry. Anyway, they were arguing and Annabeth's mom was serving as kind of the refferee, trying to control their anger. They kept saying that they were having sex with their moms... anyway at the end, they were just sword fighting, and then it shifted. Caspia, do you remember ever meeting your Dad?"

She thought for a minute. "Yes, I think when I was about six years old, Poseidon came and talked to Lizzie, he had a tan, green eyes, and black hair-"

"Sounds like Dad." Percy interupted

"Yes, but the more memorable part, was what Lizzie said. She said that he was a 'bad man' And seemed very upset that he had left us. After that we rented Cinderella and went over to my Uncle Jimmy's house and stayed there for a while. When I turned 14, she had had enough of me seeing the monsters, and sent me to the mental hospital."

I considered telling her the other part. "Poseidon...he also told Lizzie to send you to Clear Creek. She must have resisted for a while, probably out of anger, but I suppose she figured out in time he was right. The director was a son of Zeus, and they thought he could protect you."

She wheeled. "Wait, he's the reason I was sent there. He's the reason my future was destroyed? Did he have ANY IDEA what that did to me? Never being recognized for my intelligence, just being thought of as 'that crazy girl who sees monsters' I thought he was on my side! I thought he cared about me!"

Percy wrapped his arm around her. "He does care about you. He sent you there to protect you." She blinked tears out of her eyes. "Okay," She said, though it was clear she didn't believe it. "Let's find Alcatraz."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Hippies and Alcatraz

Blade Roberts

After we ran away, we were on a road that looked like all the other ones. A big stone apartment building on each side. "We're on Golden Gate Avenue." Annabeth said.

"We need to get to Oak street" Sapphire said.

"That's not where Alcatraz is, is it?" Percy asked.

"No, we need to get to Hippie Hill." Leo started bouncing. "Oooh, oooh, do we get to smoke their weed?" Leo asked exitedly.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Leo, I don't think they actually smoke weed." Leo looked at her suspiciously. "We'll see, won't we."

"Besides, It's not like they'll share." Topaz reasoned.

"True." He turned.

"You want to put money on it, Annabeth?"

"No."

"Why? Are you chicken? Or are you broke?" He looked up. "HA! You know that I'm right! All hippies smoke weed!"

He proceeded to do a victory dance that made him look like he had to go to the bathroom.

"We're here." Percy said, anxious to stop Leo's dance.

"Cool, Annabeth, you owe me 20 bucks."

"I didn't agree to put money on it. Besides, we don't even know if you're right yet."

He glared at her.

Nico shook his head. "That's pretty sad. Sapphire, how can you go out with someone who doesn't even know how to glare?"

"You'll have to teach him."

"There is no teaching someone. It has to come from your soul."

"Like you have one." Nico glared at him, a lot more scary than the way Leo had. He yelped and hid behind Sapphire. "Help! Too...Scary..." He fainted. Sapphire rolled her eyes. "Come on, Fire boy, get up."

He didn't move.

Sapphire slapped him hard across the face. "OW! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR! MY FACE IS BEING BURNED BY ACID! HOW CAN YOU HIT SO FUCKING HARD?" He rubbed his face and moaned. Nico smirked. "She has impecable strength for one so small." Sapphire walked over to him. Snow threw herself in front of him. "No! Leave my teddy bear alone!"

"Move it shorty!"

"Okay, I am NOT short. I am 5'5. That is not short for a girl. Or a guy for that matter."

"Nico is like 5'10. That makes you short."

"No it doesn't! And you're 5'4

"Tinkerbelle!"

"What?"

"You have tiny feet. They're like size 4."

"Nico, do you think my feet are small?"

"No, you're my Cinderella."

"Aww." She hugged him.

"See! And anyway, Leo is less than five feet tall."

"Why you draggin' me down? I didn't do anything!"

"You're short."

"Ha ha." Snow said.

"Quit your bickering. We need to focus. We're kind of lost. Snow, where are we?" Annabeth.

She laughed. "Oh, hippie hill. We just need to go around and take a ferri to the island."

"Not so fast, children." We turned in the direction of the voice. It was a beautiful woman with sleek wavy red hair, green eyes, and a designer dress. Leo blinked. "Who are you?"

She smiled. "I am Pheme, goddess of fame."

"Cool," Blade said. "Are you here to help us with our quest?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. I am here to give you some advice and a gift."

"What's the gift?"

"Oh, you kids these days. It would be better to give you the advice first, then the gift, which will help you in your quest."

"Well, if you're not going to ask, I'll tell you what you need to do. Firstly, you seek out Frank Morris and his cohorts."

"Why?" Blade asked.

"We think that history is repeating itself. The very same thing happened when Alcatraz was formed. The monsters were trying to do the same thing. They were using demigods as their lab rats for their death experiments."

"Death experiments?" Percy asked.

Pheme ignored the question and smiled."I suspect that Alcatraz was used to hold the more violent demigods. Does no one else find it suspicious that they had a prison on an island, isolated, with no contact with the outside world? Al Capone, for instance was the son of Ares."

"Really?" Caspia asked.

"Yes. Why do you think he was so violent?"

"Anyway, the prison was run by monsters, and was created at the request of the gods. But the monsters, unsurprisingly, eventually turned on the demigods and killed them against the gods wishes. They were labeled as "Attacks on the guards" and were permitted to be uncharged. The gods remained oblivious to the turning of the monsters for a time."

"How could they not realize?" Leo asked.

"Please listen dear boy."

"There was one record of an escape from Alcatraz. Frank Morris and his friends Clarance and John Anglin and Allan West. Morris was the son of Poseidon, the Anglin brothers were children of Hermes, and West was the son of Hades."

"Over the course of two years, Morris, West and the Anglin brothers created a raft and constructed lifelike dummies created in their image out of paper mache' and human hair collected from the prison's barbershop to place in their cells, and stole prison tools for digging. So many escape materials had been used by the conspirators that they had created a workshop above their cell row."

"West asked if he could cover the area with blankets, saying that the dust from the workshop was falling into his cell. They proceeded to dig their way out, and on the night of June 11th 1962, they left through the vents in their cells, all but Allan West, who masterminded the whole plot, and was left behind, because he couldn't get the vent open in time. This was obviously no accident, if he was able to come up with all that and they couldn't, surely he could do something as simple as open a vent!"

"Never the less, Morris and the Anglin brothers left, put the dummies in their beds, and fashioned a raft out of their coats. Only a son of Poseidon could pull that off. They left, and bodies were found in the ocean, as well as the bags with their personal belongings, and they were presumed drowned. However, the body found did have the DNA of one of Morris's relatives, but not Morris himself. They are all still alive today," Snow chimed in.

Pheme clapped silently. "Very good, Snow. Though I must say, where is the other half of your skirt?"

"Anyway, you will find Frank Morris is still on Alcatraz, using a work of the gods to stay alive forever."

"A youth fountain?" Topaz guessed.

Pheme nodded. "Yes, indeed, a youth fountain. But, as we all know, eternal youth always has a price to pay for someone. The youth fountain takes human lives to run, and however long that person had to live, is how many years are added to their lifespan. Children are the best to use, because they have the most life left in them, and softer skin to add to the mixture. You should defeat them, but also get information from them about how it happened last time."

"Are they working alone or for the opposing cause?" Nico asked. "Also where is Allan West now?"

"Both very good questions, which I'm afraid you'll have to learn from them. Aulthough, I still have my gift to give."

"What is it already?" Leo demanded.

She smiled at us. "Your friend Snow has been having trouble with some of her visions, correct? I have something I aquired from the god of the prophecy himself."

"Apollo?" Percy guessed.

"Yes. In the seventeenth century, around 42, Apollo's own Oracle of Delphi was having trouble recieving the prophecies, and everyone thought she had broken her vow of maidenhood, and that the spirit had left her. But Apollo had Hephaestus forge a ring, that would mend the spirit of delphi if it was still inside her. He gave it to her, and as soon as she slipped it on her finger, she emmited the green smoke and gave one of the great prophecies."

"But isn't it possible that she had broken her vow of maidenhood and the ring has its own power of prophecy?" Annabeth asked.

"Well yes, but either way it will help your friend. The ring is meant to strengthen the power of prophecy, but its design was not specified for delphi. Anyone with the gift can use it. "

"So where is it?" Caspia asked.

"Oh, silly me!"

She reached into her handbag and brought out a silver engraved ring with a sparkling ruby in the middle. It seemed to radiate different colors, like a combonation rainbow and strobe light. It was beautiful, and still shining, but something about it was ancient, aulthough she said it was made only in 1842.

She handed it gingerly to Snow. She put it on her left hand. "Oh, you look lovely dear! I hope it helps you as much a it looks pretty!"

"Oh, and one more thing, a gift for the daughter of Athena."

She put her whole arm in her purse, like Mary Poppins. "Now where is that wretched thing?...Ah, her it is." She presented it to Annabeth.

"It's...an ear." Annabeth observed.

"A large ear." Sapphire noted.

"Oh, it's not just an ear. It's a magical ear. You hold it over your regular ear and it grafts onto it, and will not fall off, no matter what happens, and it cannot be removed by any hand but yours. It allows you to listen to anyone's conversation, no matter where it is. As long as you know the names of everyone that you want to listen to in the conversation, it will work."

She looked impressed. "Thank you Pheme."

"Oh, it's really no trouble dear. And I have a second piece of advice, for the son off Hades. Remmember the story of the Alcatraz prisoners. It is not uncommon for children of Hades to be slighted. You will always be the most powerful, and most feared, and you are outcasted because of it. But things can turn out brightly for a child of the Underworld. Some can aspire to greatness."

"Good luck, my heros."


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

The ferry

Topaz Sabrina

We took an open air ferry to Alcatraz Island. It was horribly crowded, polluted with tons of tourists. We got seats at the back, so as to be in isolation from all the sightseers.

"So, Snow, do you think the ring is working yet?" Annabeth asked curiously.

She shook her head. "No, nothing has come to mind, though that could be due to our location. We're in the middle of the Bay, it's likely nothing significant has happened here."

"Looks pretty," Caspia commented.

"Thanks, I like your magic ring too." She said, then turned her attention back to the water.

"Annabeth, why don't you use your new ear?" I suggested.

"Who should I listen to?" Annabeth asked.

"Tourists?" Leo said.

"How about Tammi and her emposai friends?" Nico suggested, grinning.

"She'd be in Tartarus, right?" Annabeth questioned.

"Probably." I said.

" I need the name of the people she's with. How will I find that out?"

"Their names are Kelli, Sara, Hana, and Ashley Sue. Fellow emposai."

"Wow. Ring must be working." Percy said.

"Yeah. I guess so." She turned away, and then fell backward. Her eyes were the same violet shade they always were, but they had a whitish glow. She was breathing heavily, then her eyes turned back to normal, and she sat up, taking deep breaths like she just woke up from a nightmare.

Nico knelt by her. "You okay, princess?"

"I think so. Can someone help me up?" I gripped her hand and pulled her up.

"So, what was that about?" Blade asked curiously.

"Well, long story short, those demigods from Alcatraz Island are defiantly the bad guys."

"Was Allan West there?" Nico asked.

"Yeah, he was."

He frowned, noticing her tone.

"So, you guys still up to hear she-demons chit chat?" Said Leo.

"Sure." Percy shrugged.

Annabeth dug in her bag and brought out the ear. She held it up to her own right ear and pressed it into it. It grafted onto it, and her eyes widened like someone who turned their music too loud.

After about 10 minutes everyone was looking down, straightening their clothes and hair, waiting for her to come back. Finally, her expression went back to normal, and she took the ear off.

"So what did they say?" Sapphire asked.

"Well Tammi is pretty pissed off about Topaz killing her, and went into some graphic detail...Then they started talking about Ashley Sues new Gucci shoes that she got before she was killed, which was super boring...And then they talked about how they didn't think we'd survive our encounter with the Alcatraz demigods, I don't know how she knew we were going there, we didn't even know we were going there until after we, well they met Tammi."

"Someone must have told them." Percy said.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Well, duh Seaweed Brain! The question is WHO told them. Someone is watching us."

"Or Pheme isn't really on our side. She could have given us false information and earned our trust with the gifts. We could be walking straight into a trap." Snow said.

" It may be a trap, but that doesn't mean that Pheme is trying to kill us. She could have thought that we were strong enough to defeat them. And we may need the information to help with the quest." I told them.

"I guess either of you could be right." Annabetg said.

"Hey! I see the island!" Caspia said.

 _We are now approaching Alcatraz Island. Please everyone stay in your seats and wait to be deboarded. Please stay in a single file line as you exit the boat. Have a nice day!_


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Alcatraz Island

Topaz Sabrina

We got off the ferry at around 1 pm and the island nearly took my breath away. Despite every bit of available space being occupied by pelicans, it was still amazing. When we got off, we were facing a long grey building and a guard tower.

What amazed me about Alcatraz wasn't that it looked good, but that it had stood the test of time for so long. The history of this place...I was surprised Snow wasn't already getting visions.

"So are we going to actually tour the island or just look around aimlessly for the youth fountain?" Percy asked.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Percy, if we're looking for something, it's not aimless. But yes, I think we should buy an audio tour."

"So where's the reception desk?" I wondered.

"Let's just follow the crowd." Caspia suggested.

"Ugh so many people." Nico complained.

We finally found a room with lines a mile long and a desk at the front of each with TVs advertising different things about San Fransisco and pictures of the prison. After what seemed like an eternity, we got to the front of the line, and there was a far too friendly receptionist who had obviously had too much plastic surgery and a poster that had the price of entry per person.

"39.00 a person." Blade observed.

"Yeesh, that's steep." Leo said.

"So 361.00 total, don't worry I've got this." Snow handed the smiling receptionist a roll of 20s.

She handed us each a headset and a handheld device. "Have a nice day!"

"Wow, so much Botox," Leo commented once we were out of earshot.

"She looked like a clown." Percy added.

"True." Caspia said.

"Okay, everyone put your headphones in and listen. There might be some kind of clue as to where the fountain is." I said.

"I would say that it's probably underground, where the tourists wouldn't find it." Annabeth guessed.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that they might be in the place the monsters used to conduct the experiments." Snow suggested.

"I think you're both right. We should see if we can find the basement." Percy said.

"If they were doing experiments on the prisoners, it would probably be close to the cells." Caspia said.

"Let's find the cells then." Nico said.

We walked to the main cell house, which was lined with cells, 3 rows from top to bottom. "Why don't we try that no trespassing door?" Snow suggested.

"Okay, but when we get arrested, it's on you." Sapphire said.

It turned out to be a dark hallway, and we had to get out the head for some of us to be able to see. At the end there was a staircase that seemed to go on forever. When we reached the bottom it was still dark, but there was a slight reddish glow that seemed to come from nowhere.

"So do we have any sort of plan at all?" Sapphire asked. "Uh, no not really." Annabeth said, looking down. Percy grinned. "I thought Athena always had a plan."

"We find out what was happening last time and what side they're on and if they're on the wrong one we'll have to fight them." I said.

"Well that's not very nice." Came a voice from the darkness.

"Someone should really teach you some manners." Said a second voice.

"Maybe we could do the honors." Came the first again.

"Who are you?" Caspia called out.

"Hmmm, you'd think they would have guessed by our obvious twinness."

"They're the Anglin brothers." I said.

"You are correct."

"And very pretty as well."

"Forgive my brother, he's a terrible flirt."

"You appear to be twins as well."

"Yes, I'm Snow Sabrina and this is my sister Topaz."

"Who are the rest of you?"

"Sapphire Banks."

"Blade Roberts."

"Caspia Kelley."

"Leo Valdez."

"Nico di Angelo."

"Annabeth Chase."

"Percy Jackson."

"My, my all the famous demigods, the Heros of Olympus."

"I've only not heard of two of you."

"Caspia and Blade are new to the camp." Percy chimed in. I glared at him. Why would he mention their limited experience to someone we could potentially fight?

"That must be it."

"You must be wondering which of us is which."

"Yeah." Blade said.

"I'm Clarance," said the one with the higher pitched voice.

"I'm John," said the other.

"Let us show you around." Said Clarance.

We were led into another dark room with what looked like an extremely long dining table in the center of it, lined with plush red chairs.

"The others should be here soon, why don't you sit down?" John suggested.

We all sat down, but most of the chairs were still empty.

"So, tell us about your quest." Clarance ordered.

"Why don't you tell us about yourselves first." Snow said.

"Well, our story would be better told by Frank, he's the best storyteller of us all. So who is your storyteller?"

"Annabeth, why don't you?" Percy urged.

"I think we should wait till everyone's here, so they can all hear."

"Fair enough." John said.

"I'll go tell them to hurry up." Clarance said, then got up and then sounds of him climbing the stairs followed.

We sat in silence until we heard them descending down the staircase. Two figures emerged. Only two.

"Where's Allan West?" Nico asked. "Wasn't he supposed to be here."

"Oh, he'll be along." Said a deep voice I assumed to be Frank Morris.

I felt his gaze shift toward my sister. "Do I know you?"

"Hmmmm...maybe. I visited the prison a lot."

"Um...why?" Nico asked.

"I, uh knew one of the inmates."

"Which one?"

"Al Capone."

"Whoa, really?"

"He was a family friend back in the 40s."

"Wow, that's cool."

"Uh-huh."

"So Allan should be here soon. Then we can exchange stories, yes?"

"Sure." Percy said.

There was a silence. Then loud, oddly rhythmatic clopping down the stairs.

"Ah, there you are, Allie."

Leo laughed.

I swear I could feel his murderius glare in the darkness.

" _What_ have I told you about calling me that?"

"Don't ever do it unless you want to have bones up your-"

"Don't say that. Most of them are just kids." John chided.

"So anyway, tell us about your quest." Frank urged.

"Well, okay. Go ahead Annabeth." Percy said.

"Okay, but I think we would be able to build off your story better."

"Alright. Back in the 40s, it was a good time for criminals. Tensions were high, after the last Great War, and there was talk of a second one. A lot of gangsters arose, and many of them were demigods. We obviously had a huge advantage over the puny mortals, and the gods decided we were out of control. They decided to get some powerful half-bloods, who were cops, to track us down and throw us in the slammer. They picked an isolated place to put us, an island way out in the San Fransisco bay, so that you would have to swim miles to escape. Naturally, we couldn't have mortals guarding the prison, so they summoned monsters to do the job. They were never awfully nice, but one day we started notice prisoners going missing. After a while they came back, but they were not the same."

"They were scarred by the experience they claimed to be brutal torture. Many of them went insane. Later we came to know what had happened. You know how monsters reform after they've been killed, right? You three," he pointed at Percy, Annabeth, and Nico.

"Have been there yourselves. But only one of you did it out of bravery. You saw the way they have to reform. I'm sure you know how painful it is. Well some of the monsters decided they would stop dying. I think Pheme told you how we were used as lab rats, yes? Well their plan was really quite genius. They found a way to attach their essence to the human souls, and were able to return quickly, the spirit mending them. Their plan was to have a soul for every monster, so that they would be impossible to kill. It would be chaos. Monsters ruling the world. Can you imagine?"

"But alas, the gods remained blind until it was almost too late. Many tried to escape, but we were the only ones to succeed. We laid low for a while, at least, the twins an I did...Poor Allan here didn't make it out in time and we would have been bloody stupid to go back for him, friend or not. It would have been impossible to rescue him. Not only would we fail, but we would be imprisoned again. Allan escaped on his own, and rather opened the gods eyes about what was happening. Alcatraz was closed in the sixties, and we rejoiced, because we thought it was over with. But, the real police department was still searching for us, so we hid in the last place they'd look: Alcatraz itself."

"But alas, we weren't getting any younger, an we had no desire to go to the Underworld, so we acquired a tool to keep us young forever. We found it deep underground, in if you can believe it, the catacombs in Paris. There is a chamber, which held the youth fountain. It was said to be a gift from God to the Christians that hid from the Romans when the religion was still illegal. We took it, Allan here shadow traveled us and the fountain back here, where we've been living young and healthy ever since."

"Told you he was a good storyteller." Boasted Clarance.

"How old do you think you are exactly Clarance? You act like you're their 4 year old son." Leo said.

"I do not! You freakish little midgit!"

"Whoa. Feelings."

"Now, I've held up my end of the bargain, so now hold up yours. Tell us about your quest."

"Okay, so...we believe something similar is happening now. The staff of Hades has been stolen, and we think that the monsters are going to be risen with it, and that the Titans are using it to bribe the monsters into joining them so they can come back to power...to put it simply." Annabeth said.

"Interesting, interesting. Do you know who has the staff?"

"No, not really."

"You should since your mom is Athena." Leo taunted.

"I will gut you."

"Well I shall tell you. It is being guarded by the one Titan who survived the last Titan war without being punished."

"Prometheus?" Annabeth asked.

"Indeed. Though it was stolen by someone else, a demigod of the Titans if you can believe it."

"Allan, do you think we should help them?"

"Hey, why are you asking him?"

"You know EXACTLY why, Clarance."

He huffed.

I felt him studying us, as if trying to pick our thoughts out of our heads.

"They know how the youth fountain works. Or specifically, the blonde with the midnight eyes does."

 _Midnight_ _eyes_... _I_ _hadn't_ _heard_ _anyone call them that in a long time._

"You...had a vision?" John asked.

"Yes." Snow said, knowing there was no sense in lying.

"Well we may as well tell them. I suppose Pheme has already told you how the fountain works. I must now reveal out true intentions."

Leo gulped. "Which is..."

"Well, we're rather running out of sacrifices. Plenty of young people come to Alcatraz, but if a lot of people disappeared here, people would stop coming. We always have to go to the mainland, which is much more risky. We need one of you to purify the water."

I frowned. "What do you mean, purify it?"

"Well once the freshly made water has all been drinken, it fills itself with a greenish liquid, which is toxic. Once you put the sacrifice in though, it degrades it from the bottom up, kind of like your modern day blenders. It saps away their life source, and turns into the youth potion. We need one of you to do it. Preferably one of the males. That's what we always use. Don't want to risk changing ourselves. We just need one of you. We don't ask for more, because we would like for you to succeed on your mission. Decide among yourselves. Might I suggest, one of the less valuable assets, the annoying Leo Valdez."

"Hey!"

"You should draw straws." John suggested.

"You go over to that corner and decide. You have five minutes."

We all walked over there frantically. "We're not really going to let them kill Leo, are we guys?" Sapphire asked.

"Of course not," Annabeth said. "We need a plan."

Everyone looked to where Snow and I were standing.

"Hey, Annabeth had plans too." Percy argued.

"Yeah, but they have magic." Blade said.

"Yeah, that's true."

"So what should we do?" Caspia asked desperately.

"Okay, so they said the water is poisonous before its purified, right? So if we can trick them into thinking that they added Leo, they'll die. The only problem is making the water look believable. Topaz, that'll be your job."

"Okay," I said. " Should be easy enough. But what does it look like?"

"Give me your hand." I complied, and an image flashed through my head of what the water is supposed to look like.

"Okay, so how do we hide Leo?" Blade asked.

"I would say shrink him down and put him in your pocket, but that West guy worries me, I think he'll see through that." Annabeth said.

"We have no choice. We have to try." Caspia said.

"I don't know...I don't really feel right killing my brother." Nico said.

"I don't either, man but we have to do this. They're bad guys." Percy said.

"I-I guess you're right. Okay, Snow make our fake Leo."

Snow shrunk him down while simultaneously pulling something out of him and constructing a replica of him. It looked exactly like him, couldn't tell the difference.

"Percy, you hold him."

"Kay."

We all turned around. "Okay, we've decided. You are right, Leo is the most useless member of the quest. You can have him." I said.

Fake Leo nodded. "I agree, it's in the best interest of the quest for me to go, so we can avoid dying in a fight with you guys. But it's okay if I scream while I'm dying, isn't it?"

"Sure Leo." Everyone surrounded him and said their goodbyes.

We all walked over to the pool to witness. Some of us were feigning anxiety biting lips and took a deep breath, and jumped in, and fake Leo squealed as he was dissenegrated. I changed the waters color and appearance until fake Leo was gone, and he was replaced with water so clean and clear it was almost a light purple color.

The four of them grabbed cups and scooped out glasses full of it. They drank to the last drop, and for a scary moment, nothing happened. Then, starting with John, they all fell over, gagging as their insides melted away. It kept going until their whole bodies had melted away.

"Well, that was gory." Caspia said plainly.

"Bring Leo back!" Sapphire insisted.

"Okay, Percy put him on the ground."

She proceeded to make him grow back to his normal size, then turn fake Leo into a glowing smoke and it flew into his chest.

He gasped for air. "What the Hell was that?"

"The small piece of your soul that I used to make your look-a-like."

"Whoa, back the truck up. You tore my soul in half?"

"No...more like fourths. And at least I returned it to you. I could have kept it for leverage."

"She's got ya there." Nico said.

"Yeah, so what did we learn exactly from this horrific endeavor?" Leo asked.

"That Prometheus has it. But the question is: Where is he?" My sister asked.

"I don't know. We'll just have to find out." Annabeth said.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Food court drama

Sapphire Banks

After Alcatraz we were all a little shaken up. I mean Leo had almost just died. It was scary! When we finally got out of the underground cave thingi, it was about 5:00. We left on another ferry and went to a nearby mall to discuss what to do in the food court.

"My dad used to take me here on the weekends sometimes," Annabeth said. "He wanted to buy me clothes, but all I ever wanted was books."

"Classic wise girl. I'm starving!" Percy said.

"Classic seaweed brain. Snow, will you go get him something to eat?"

"Sure. What do you want Percy?" Snow asked him.

"Pizza."

"Of course you do."

They walked off to a nearby Pizza Hut vendor.

"Nico, you okay?" I asked him.

"Hmm, oh, yeah I'm fine."

"No, you're not."

"Yes I am."

"No you're not."

"Yes I am."

"No, you're not!"

"Yes I am!"

"Tell me what's wrong, Nico."

"Fine. But alone, okay?"

"Alright." He led my arm over to a desolate corner of the food court.

"So I've kind of been thinking over what Pheme said, about Children of Hades."

"And..." I prompted.

"Well, what if I don't prove myself on this quest? What if I end up like all the others, and get forgotten and avoided by everyone?"

"You won't, Nico. You're awesome. And anyone who isn't capable of seeing that isn't worthy of your attention."

"Well, thanks, but first of all, that sounds like a cheesy greeting card. And second, I don't want to be forgotten. I want to be remembered, not discarded like an old sock. But what if I'm not good enough to finish the quest?"

"You are Nico. But ask Snow, comforting is clearly not my area of expertise. I had to copy my first line from that pink card someone littered on the floor."

"I knew it!"

"I'll go get her." I walked away. Snow was at the table sipping on one of the smoothies they got.

"What's this."

"Oh, I got smoothies for everyone. I got you raspberry delight. It's right there." She pointed.

"Thank you dear lady."

"Listen, is Nico okay?"

"That's precisely why I am here. I need you to go talk to him because I utterly suck at the confortation of humans without garbage to copy off off."

"Oh, okay. I'll go talk to him. I'll bring him his smoothie too."

"What kind is it?"

"Blackberry bash. That's his favorite fruit."

"I did not know this."

"Well, now you do. I'll go talk to him now."

She got up and walked over to him. I couldn't hear them, but I watched them. She put her hand on his shoulder and he pulled her close. They seemed to be talking... _Whoa Sapphire, don't be a stalker._

I turned my attention back to the table.

"-not fair! How come Percy gets pizza AND a smoothie, while the rest of us waller in poverty with only a smoothie!" Leo complained.

"Tell you what, Leo, Percy doesn't get to keep his smoothie. You can have it."

"Hey! Annabeth, how could you?" Percy asked in outrage.

"This will go toward my goal of keeping you from going on _the biggest losers."_

 _"_ Is that show even still on?"

"Yes, Seaweed Brain. My stepmom watches it all the time."

"Huh. Didn't know that... BUT back to the problem at hand, how could you betray me like this? Why? Why? I thought you loved me! I though you cared! But you just took away my happiness for your own gain!" He pretended to sob.

"Percy, it is not for my own gain. I just don't want you to get fat."

"You just don't want to be seen with me once I'm fat. Your love is not unconditional!"

"Yes it is, Percy. I would still stay with you when you were fat, though I would be incredibly ashamed, and my Mother would be able to say I-told-you-so."

"So now it's your mother that's keeping us apart? Where does it end Annabeth, where does it end?"

"Percy, stop being dramatic, you can have your smoothie back." She took it from him mid-sip, and gave it back to Percy.

"Hey!"

"Ha! I knew that would work. Love ya Babe!"

Annabeth put her head in her hands.

"We're back bitches!" Nico said.

"You missed a hilarious conversation between Percy and Annabeth." I told him.

"That's great. Where are Caspia and Blade?"

"Making out by Taco Bell." Topaz said.

"WHAT? I am going to put a stop to this treachery right now!" Percy stormed over to them, wind swirling around him. We all followed.

"CASPIA MARRIANNE KELLY, WHAT IN POSEIDON'S NAME DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

"Um, we were just-"

"Just loosing my trust completely! I leave you alone for FIVE MINUTES, thinking you were responsible enough to talk to the opposite sex without rubbing your lips all over them, but NOOOOOO! You had to prove yourself to be a complete FLOOZY, and swap saliva with this young man. You are GUH-ROUNDED, missy. And as for you BUSTER, if I ever catch you near my sister again, you will end up AT THE BOTTOM OF A FOUNTAIN! Am I clear, you STINKIN YOUNGINS!"

"Seaweed Brain, calm down."

"Don't you tell me to CALM DOWN Annabeth! Our little girl thinks she's SOOOO grown up! But it's a short leap from this to going to a WHITE VAN willingly."

"Athena, help me." Annabeth said, rubbing her face.

"So you agree? We need to take serious action!"

"Percy, if you won't stop for me, stop for all these mortals. You are about to start a hurricane."

He looked down at the wind swirling around him, gathering water from the fountain.

"Yes, alright. I love you Annabeth. You're all that has kept me young in all these years of raising kids."

"I've only known you for two weeks!" Caspia exclaimed.

"Don't push him. He's calm now." Snow whispered.

"But, I've still got my eye on you BUCKO. Stay away from my sister if you don't want to drown." He stalked off, with Annabeth following.

"What WAS that?" Caspia asked.

"Percy when he's angry. Try to avoid it from now on." Snow said.

"Alright. Let's go sit back down." Caspia said, still miffed slightly.

We walked back to the table.

"Okay, it's about dinner time, what do you guys want to do?" Topaz asked.

"I dunno...what's around here?" Blade asked, nearly having recovered from Percy.

"Why don't we go outside and see? Is everyone done with smoothies?" Caspia asked.

A bunch of muttering of yes.

We threw away the empty Jamba Juice cups and went out the front entrance.

"So are we going to walk or take a taxi?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "We won't all fit into a taxi Seawed Brain."

"I thought we could do groups." He explained.

"No, we shouldn't split up. We can walk or take the bus, but we'd need to know where we wanted to go if we took the bus, so that's not good for looking around."

"We could rent a van." Snow suggested.

"Good idea. Who's going to drive?" Annabeth asked.

Everyone took a sudden interest in their feet.

"Well we should probably rule out everyone who's 15 because they only have a learners permit. Let's see, that's Caspia, Blade, Sapphire, me, maybe Leo..." Nico said.

"I'm 16 broh!"

"Do you have a license?"

"Well, no."

"Then why does it matter?"

"Because I don't want to be a little kid!"

"Hey!" All 3 said at once.

"Who here has a license?"

"Not me." Nico said.

"I'll drive, since no one else will." Annabeth said.

"Okay, where's a dealership? Wait, do you call it a dealership for rentals?" Percy asked.

"Yeah, and there's one two blocks away." Topaz said.

"Cool, lets go." Percy said. It took about 15 minutes to get there, and we rented a black van that looked like we were using it to rob a bank.

The interior was filled with black leather seats arranged in a circle in the back and just 2 side by side in the front. Percy sat shotgun with Annabeth.

She went through the safe drivers checklist, out loud, and Percy tapped his fingers loudly on the dashboard. "Okay, done."

"Finally. You know no one keeps doing the safe drivers checklist after they take the test, right?" Percy snorted.

"Better safe than sorry." She said.

"You sound like your Mother."

"Is that good or bad?"

Percy rolled his eyes. "Bad, obviously. Jeez Annabeth get with the program."

"I will not throttle him. I will not throttle him." Annabeth muttered under her breath.

"Okay, let's go." She said once she was calmed down.

We drove for a while until I saw something.

"Ooooh, oooooh let's go to Soup Plantation!" Sapphire squealed.

"No, I want burgers." Percy whined.

"Why don't we go to a Steakhouse? Hey, there's Outback." Blade suggested.

Annabeth pulled in, muttering about the parking rules.

"Okay, let's get out." She told us.

We walked into the dimly lit restaurant.

"It looks so much better dark." Snow said.

"God, I love you." He said and kissed her.

"Hey, get your Floozy lips off my brother!" I screamed.

"Is that really what I sounded like?"

"No Percy. Much, much worse." Annabeth told him calmly.

A dark haired scruffy waiter appeared behind the podium. " Hello, my name is Tim. MayI help you?" He spoke with a southern-ish accent.

"Yeah we want to order a bunch of apes and zebras from Amazon, thanks. That's why we came to a restaurant." Leo said.

"The sarcasm is noted. A table for how many?"

"Let's see there's nine people here talking to you, how many people should the table seat? Hmmm, that's hard. We'd better call a Philosopher." Leo said.

"Yes, alright. Table for nine. Will that be a booth or chairs?"

"Well, let's see-"

"Leo, be nice to the waiter." I told Leo.

"Okay, babe. Yeah, that's right haters, I'm dating her! Shazam!"

"A booth, please." Snow said.

"You're just in luck. There's one big one left."

He led us off to a corner with a big wraparound booth. We piled in from the left Blade, Caspia, Percy, Annabeth, Topaz, Snow, Nico, me, Leo.

"Let me go get your menus."

"Yeah, who's stopping ya, buddy?" He said as he walked away.

"Leo, you really should be nicer to restaurant workers . They don't get paid very much." Annabeth told him.

"Ah, but they can't say anything back, making them the perfect targets."

"Leo, you are a disturbed person."

"So true."

"Here you are." He put a menu in front of each of us. "Might I interest you in something to drink?"

"Well, let's see, we're all human and humans need water to survive, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say yes."

"WHAT would you like to drink you filthy son of h-" He stopped himself. "I'm sorry. I have spoken out of turn. What would you lovely folks like to drink?"

"How old do you think I am?" Percy asked.

"Erm, I don't know, maybe sixteen."

"Are you sure I'm not 22, Snow, tell him how 22 I am."

"I'm sorry sir, you can't have alcohol. We have Coca-Cola. That seems to be popular with your generation."

"Do you have blue food coloring?"

"No, why?"

"Oh, I wanted blue Coke. But if you don't have that then just regular old Coke."

"Kill my happiness." He muttered.

He looked at Blade. "Lemonade, please."

"Oh, Caspia, he's so manly." He nearly fell over himself laughing.

"The young lady next to him," He asked, ignoring Leo.

"Mountain Dew, please."

"Yeah, the last thing we need is her all hyped up on sugar this late in the night."

"Shut up Leo." Percy and Blade said at the same time.

He looked at Annabeth. "Tea with lemon."

"The blonde next to her."

"A glass of wine, please." Her voice was sweet and he didn't question how old she was.

"The twin?"

"I'd like the same please." Again, he didn't question.

"Diet Coke." Nico said.

"Oh, you're watching your weight di Angelo?"

"Shut up Leo." Snow said.

"The girl with the black hair."

"Rasberry tea."

"And...you."

"Why don't you try and guess?"

"Water, it is." He walked away. "Hey, wait, bro, come on!"

"You deserved that Leo." I admitted.

"No one deserves JUST water."

"So where are we going to sleep tonight?" Annabeth asked.

"Depends on what we need to do tomorrow." I said.

"I think maybe we should visit Mount Tam." Caspia said.

"That...doesn't sound safe. Even if he's not loose, Atlas is still holding the sky there." Topaz said.

"As much as I hate to admit it, that's probably our best bet. Atlas probably knows something about the staff. We need to make him talk. If one of us offers to hold the sky, he may tell something." Snow said.

"But we'd be letting him loose! Imagine what he would do!" Annabeth all but yelled.

"But there's really no other way to get information." Nico said.

"But-"

"Drinks." The waiter said and passed them out.

"Are you ready to order?"

Leo was about to say something, but I glared at him and he stopped.

"I'll have an 8 oz rare steak." Snow said.

"No, remember what Daddy said."

She rolled her eyes in her head. "Fine, medium rare. Hope you're happy Dad, you just took away like, half the blood."

"I finally get your relationship." Leo said.

"I'll have the same." Nico said with a glare.

The rest of us told him what we wanted and he walked away.

"So, back to the problem at hand-wait, is Snow asleep?"

Snow, who had already had her head on Nico's shoulder, was out cold.

"I guess she was tired." Topaz said and took another sip of wine. About 5 seconds later, she passed out, too.

"Okay, it's defiantly something in the drinks. How much has everyone else had?" Annabeth asked.

"I've drinken about half already." Percy admitted. "But that's with ice."

"So he's next." Caspia said worriedly.

"I haven't touched mine yet." Annabeth said.

"Me neither." I said.

"I haven't either. Leo kind of ruined lemonade for me." Blade said with a glare.

"I had a little." Caspia admitted.

"I've drinken a good bit." Nico said.

"I didn't drink any, I thought he really would poison me." Leo said.

"Hang on. It may have been poison, not sleeping draught but it affected them less because they're immortal." Annabeth said.

"Way to put our nerves at ease, wise girl!"

"Sorry. We need to go to the kitchen and see who did this. Blade guard them."

I was surprised she wanted me to come with her instead of the war machine.

When we got close to the sliding doors, there was a horrific smell. We went into the kitchen where we found the rotting corpses of all the workers. This thing, was feeding off their flesh while the waiter cooked steak on the grill humming cheerfully. I almost threw up it was so gross. Annabeth looked ready to gag, but she was holding it in. He turned his head and it disgusted me even more than the corpses.

He had weathered tannish-grey skin, a frail thin body, startling yellow eyes and a long dirty grey tongue inside an extremely haggard face.

I'll admit it. I screamed. Loudly. I kept screaming until Annabeth put her hand over my mouth and told me to shut up while she was thinking.

"Tim, what's going on here."

He looked up. "Oh, hello. You two are some of the polite ones. It's so refreshing when people are kind to those serving them."

"Yes, but what is going on here, Tim?"

"Hmmm? Oh, you mean Eurynomus? Oh, he's just having a snack. All of the other workers were terribly rude anyway. Serves them right I think."

"But Tim-"

"Tim? Oh, no, that's just a formality. It's Xenia. I am the God of Hospitality and manners, particularly with travelers of long distance."

"Well, you sound like a nice guy. Why are you working for that, that THING."

"I told you his name is Eurynomus. It's very rude not to call someone by their name once you know it. But you are pardoned, as this is your first time not acting out of politeness that I've seen."

"Right. So what does he want? Why did you put our friends to sleep? They were all polite to you, well, except Leo."

"Was Leo the imply son of Haphaestus who had too much sarcasm?"

"Yes?"

"Are you asking or telling?"

"I'm telling."

"Good. Well your friend Leo will have to be killed and eaten by Eurynomus here, I'm afraid."

"What? But all he did was make some sarcastic comments! He was just being Leo!"

"Impoliteness should not go unpunished or it will continue. That is why he is destined for that fate."

"But why did you put sleeping draught in our drinks?"

"These are desperate times. People are swayed easily. The Olympians never accepted me; never gave me a seat on their hall. Even after I said please. So rude! The lord of the sky himself never uses his manners either, always just expects everything to be handed to him without any thanks or recognition whatsoever!"

"The Titan Kronos came to me in a recent dream, made me an offer I couldn't refuse. You see Eurynomus here has never been respected by the lord of the dead. He was offered the role of Ruler of the Underworld when the Titans take over. He said when that happens, we could get rid of all the impolite mortals on this earth and put them in punishment. It was too sweet to refuse! I accepted. He said all I had to do was bring him those two pretty blonde girls who are asleep now."

"But they were polite to you. Why would you want anything to happen to them?"

"Have ever heard he saying 'the needs of the many outweigh the few'? Their lives are less important than the purification of the entire world. Can you imagine a world full of only nice people? Oh, it would be magnificent. Besides, he said they were in love."

"That's not the way I heard it."

"How did you hear it then, dear?"

"I heard he forced himself on her and she told us the other night crying."

"My dear, you simply do not understand what things were like in the Ancient World. It was extremely common for that to happen when a man fell in love, and it was not much less common for her to end up loving him in return eventually. You'd have to be a stubborn woman with extremely high standards not to."

"But that's terrible!"

"It's the way things were. I'm sorry if it doesn't fit your modern point of view, but it's the way things were then and everyone was happy with it. Now don't try my patience. You starting to sound very rude."

"I'm very sorry, Xenia. I don't mean to sound impolite."

"It's quite all right dear. You just weren't raised at the right standard."

"Can we come back to you in a minute?"

"Yes, but say in a moment, it sounds incredibly rude to promise to be back at a time you know you won't be, just to make the other person think you won't be gone long."

"Right. Come on Sapphire." She pulled on me, and had to drag me away because I was still frozen in horror about the demon on the floor.

I noticed for the first time that we were the only people in the restaurant. It wasn't just because it was a Tuesday, I think they did some kind of magic-y thing to keep other people away.

"Okay, I have bad news. Very bad news. Hey not all of you are asleep, that's good."

"But you know what's not good? The fact that whatever is in there is bad enough to paralyze the daughter of death." Percy said worriedly.

"She's the daughter of the Underworld, which actually would have been a better point." Nico retorted.

"So what was it? I want to see!" He said excitedly

I realized I could move. "Trust me Nico you don't. It was horrible. That-that thing was feasting on-" I collapsed.

"It's official. I'm interested. What is it?"

"I'm pretty sure you would think it was cool, but you don't want to go in there. The monster, well demon, Eurynomus, doesn't like your Father."

"He didn't attack Sapphire did he? And I think I know this demon. My dad doesn't like him much."

"Yeah, the God of politeness said-"

"God of politeness?"

"Yeah. Not a metaphor. He's literally the god of manners. He said 'when' the Titans take over he will become the king of the Underworld."

"Yeah, I spoke to him once. He was very power hungry, and he didn't like many people."

"How did you talk to him?" Annabeth asked.

He stared at his feet. "I uh, I speak demon."

"That's good! That might be able to help us. Come on!" She yelled.

"No! I can't leave her!"

"Please, Nico, this is the only way to save them."

"Fine. I'll go."


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

The demon from Outback

Annabeth Chase

"Okay, Nico. So I'll distract Xenia, and you occupy the demon. You said you know him, right? I'm not sure that thing is human enough to remember you though. Immitate someone he knows, maybe. I'll ask Xenia for advice about something. Alright, we're here. Do what I told you."

"Xenia! So good to see you again! I have to ask you for some advice."

"Ask away, dear girl, ask away."

"Um, well, my dad was thinking about opening a hotel, but I don't think he has the right ideas for how to treat the guests."

"Well, what ideas did he have?" Nico started to creep toward Eurynomus.

"Well he wanted to make them carry their own bags, because he couldn't afford a bellhop, and he wanted only one elevator, and no mints under their pillows!"

"Well none of that would make a quality hotel! Your poor Father is very confused. Not to worry! I have the best tips for hotels. I am the god of hospitality to travelers after all!"

"Great! What are your tips?" Nico was starting to open a chasm in the floor.

"Well, first of all, the guests need to feel welcome and special. They need to have their bags carried in for them, and everything taken care of for them. Nice soap in the bathrooms, fluffed pillows and soft blankets, and of course mints. Your silly Father! There of course needs to be more than one elevator, the guests-" his mouth opened in horror.

"Where is Eurynomus?"

"Where he belongs," Nico said.

"What have you done with my dear old chum Eurynomus. I won't feed you for this! Oh, what am I saying, of course I'll still feed you, it's common hospitality, but you will be punished!"

"Sorry, it had to be done," I said.

"You little-you little, now, now Xenia, don't be rude! Why would you do this to me? The entire plan is going to fall through! My future is ruined!" He collapsed to the ground and sobbed. I almost felt bad for him. Almost.

"Grab the food and let's go." Nico said.

"You are so RUDE! When someone is crying, you comfort them, no matter the circumstance! You rude children will pay for this! You impolite scum will be eliminated when my master takes over! If he is still my master..." He started crying again giving us a chance to escape. We grabbed the to go boxes and ran back to the booth.

"Leo, carry the food." I told him.

"I'll carry Snow," Nico offered.

"I got Topaz," Blade said.

We carried everything and ran to the van. Percy got in the drivers seat and took off.

"We should contact my Father and tell him about Eurynomus." Nico said.

"Anyone got a drachma?" Caspia asked.

"I have one," Percy said. "The front pocket of my bag."

There was a pouch of them, and I took one.

"How do we make a rainbow?" Sapphire asked.

"Snow has a diamond necklace. We can use that. I will get it. We'll need a flashlight too, since there's no sunshine."

He dug around in her bag, and brought out a giant heart shaped diamond necklace.

We made the rainbow. "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show us Hades in the Underworld."

The image formed and it was pitch black at first. Then a torch was lit, and a face appeared. I remembered it vaguely from the time we had gone to the Underworld. A pale face, with dark eyes, framed by black hair.

"Nico? What are you doing calling me at this ungodly hour of the night? I had finally gotten some rest after a long day of work. But you woke me up. Why?"

"Father, one of your servants has turned against you."

"Which one?"

"One of your demons, Eurynomus."

"Ah, yes. I recall him. He was good for causing fear, but he always lurked around my palace, and looked at Persephone strangely. He was a shady figure, no pun intended. What did he do that brought this to your attention?"

"Well, he and the god of politeness, Xenia, drugged Snow and Topaz, because it seems every monster we meet is working for Kronos and he gave them orders to bring them to, well, I guess his servants, since he's still cut up in the pit."

"No mystery why Atlas and he want them. Are they all right?"

"Yes. Sleeping, but fine."

"They've been passed out a lot during this trip," Leo noted.

"Shut up, Leo," I growled.

"Yes, please stay out of it. I am trying to speak to my son, not you, puny son of Hephaestus."

"Ouch."

"What was he promised for his betrayal?"

"Uh, well, Xenia said that he wasn't respected by you, so 'when' the Titans take over, he would get to be King of the Underworld."

The lord of the dead sneered. "Yes, that sounds like something he would be tricked by. Kronos is not going to send anyone down here to fight a war just to keep a promise. Is that all, son?"

"I have one more question?"

"Yes?"

"How are you going to punish Eurynomus?"

He smiled coldly. "Oh, he will be delt with. Don't worry about that. Goodnight, my son. And mind your dreams."

Just like that, our audience with the lord of the dead was over.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

The titan demigods

Nico di Angelo

After our interesting affair with one of my Father's demons, we decided to camp out in the van, so that we wouldn't have to check into a hotel. Plus we could get away quickly if a monster attacked. We got blankets and pillows and sat in the seats, with them laid back. Percy and Annabeth stayed up front, with Annabeth in shotgun, since Percy could drive faster. Snow and Topaz were still passed out, and they were in the front row of the back seats. I was with them.

When I went to sleep I had yet another nightmare. I was in a dark tunnel, and two people were talking. It was a man with a suit and scars and scratches all over his face. He had something wrapped around his stomach, and it looked like a cast of some sort. I guessed this was probably Prometheus, though I had not seen him in the battle of Manhatten.

He was speaking to a kid, who looked to be about 13 or 14, even younger than I am. I couldn't make out his face.

"I can't accept any more incompetence from all these monsters. We need to get them ourselves."

"But my lord, tomorrow they will be going to Mount Tam. They will play right into our hands."

"No, Damari. We need to get them and stop this quest, TONIGHT. They are hindering the plan."

"What shall we send after them this time?"

"Didn't I just tell you that these monsters are incompetent? These half-bloods have too much experience fighting them. Not to mention the edge Snow and Topaz's Magic gives them. If they go to Mount Tam, we risk them discovering the staff, or worse, clues as to where we are hiding you and the rest of the Titan offspring."

Demari swallowed. "Who should we send?"

"Not you, dear boy. You are too new, too weak. I think we should send Maxx, Bella, and Grey."

"That's a good choice, my liege."

"Yes, indeed it is. Go inform them of their task. Now!"

He scampered off to do as his master had ordered.

The man strolled over to a large golden casket. "Soon my friend, you will be back. And we will make those insufferable gods pay."

I woke up with a start. I shook Snow's shoulder, and too my surprise, she woke up.

"Hmm? Oh, Nico, what happened?"

"A demon and the God of politeness drugged you and your twin."

"No, Nico really?"

"It's true. I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Yeah. My head kinda hurts though."

"I'm sorry." I ran my fingers through her pretty blonde curls. "Listen, we need to get out of here. I dreamed about a guy I think is Prometheus. He sent some people after us, and I think they're close. We need to wake up Percy."

"Go ahead."

I yanked Percy's hair. "OW! Bro, whatja do that for?"

"Drive! Now! Someone's coming!" He put the key in the ignition and stepped on it. He turned out of the parking lot, and hit the road. We were soon on the highway, and I though we were home-free, but I saw a flash of golden light, spiraling towards us.

"Faster! Faster!" I yelled at him.

Everyone was starting to wake up, because if all the movement.

I saw a black figure get in front of the van, and then it stopped. The van did, I mean.

I realized Percy still had his foot on the pedal, and that black figure was holding it back from moving. To be that strong... we had to get out of there.

I was about to tell everyone to grab hands, but then the back door opened. A boy had a knife to Sapphire's throat.

"We're going to have to ask you to come with us." He said with a grin.

The girl who was glowing golden grabbed Blade and put a knife to him too, with a big smile on her face. "Get out of the car, my darlings."

I'm sad to say, we all listened to them. "Into the woods. Now!" Ordered the other guy.

There was a stretch of woods beside the road, which we were led into. The girl with Blade stayed in the front of the group, and the guy with Sapphire in the back. The other guy stayed to the left in the middle, cleaning his fingers with his knife.

"Mind introducing yourselves?" Snow asked.

"Gag those two. Prometheus said they can charmspeak." The guy with Sapphire said.

The guy who was cleaning his fingernails came over to them and before he could put the cloth in Snow's mouth, she twisted his arm behind his head and kicked him to the ground, making a long slash on his back with her knife. She held him down with the knife to his head.

"Let. Them. Go. Now. Or he dies."

"We'll kill them if you harm a single hair on his head." The girl said.

"You were given orders to bring us in alive. We weren't. I won't hesitate to do it. There's nothing stopping me. And don't think I won't enjoy making his blood pour."

"Damn, she's hot."

She made another small cut. "Now."

The other guy shrugged. "I think we should just let her kill him. I mean the mission is more important."

"We can't let him die. He'll go to the FIELDS OF PUNISHMENT." The girl screamed in exasperation.

"Personally, I don't like him much. Just let her kill him. Then we can carry on with the plan without any problems. They don't want their people to die."

"Maxx, we need 3 members of a quest. It's unlucky not to. Besides, Prometheus said we need to have all 20 demigods."

"Well what do you want to do, Bella?" Maxx asked.

Bella rolled her golden eyes. "I don't know Maxxy, we can't really say with them right here."

"Fine. Would you excuse us for a moment." They dragged Sapphire and Blade away and covered their ears while they talked. They came back a few minutes later, with their plan.

"Okay. You win. Just let him go and we'll leave you alone."

"Do you really think I'm going to fall for that? Let them go, then I'll release him."

"Hmmm, no. You'll probably kill him as soon as we let them go. You're a bloodthirsty little thing, sweetheart."

"DO NOT ever call me sweetheart. Or you just might find yourself choking on your liver."

"Wow, honey. I wonder if you're barks as bad as your bite."

"Not honey either. Or I will cut your heart out and eat it."

"I am so turned on right now."

"Ugh! Just let them go!"

"Fine, fine." They took the blades away from their throats. Sapphire ran to Leo's arms and Blade went and hugged Caspia. For once, Percy didn't protest.

"Now, we held up our end of the bargain, now hold up yours. Let him up."

Snow put the knife off him and got her knee off his chest. She helped him up and he brushed himself off, glaring in her direction.

Then, faster than my eyes could register, the Bella girl swirled in gold and tied everyone's wrists, and gagged Snow and Topaz so they couldn't charmspeak .

This time Bella got Leo and Maxx got Percy.

"Now, into the woods!" Bella ordered.

We marched into the woods, in the same formation as before. "As you've probably noticed, sweetheart, those ropes are magic proof. You can't do anything with them on. That includes your puny demigod magic."

I gritted my teeth. I wanted to strangle him, but I couldn't.

We kept walking, until we came to a huge Oak tree in the center of the forest. Grey stepped forward, and tapped the tree in a pattern. Then the bark of pushed down, revealing a rectangular crevice, with a hole in the middle.

Grey put his sword in, and a few seconds later the ground shifted and stairs appeared. He pulled the sword out, and we were urged forward. When we got inside, it was a darkened tunnel, which seemed to stretch on forever. Paths sprouted out the sides of it, so the only direction you could be sure of was straight.

We walked for what seemed like hours, until we arrived at a dimly lit section of the cavern. It turned from stone to dirt. There were several doors and passage ways leading off in different directions.

They took us down one of them, and we walked until we came to a large oak door, that looked like the front door of a church. Grey opened it with ease, and we walked inside.

The inside was nice, it had jade green walls, polished wood furniture, a chandelier and a bear rug that seemed to watch you.

The man from my dream was sitting by the fire in an easy chair, smoking a cigar.

"Ah, you've arrived. And in good time too. You've brought all nine of them?"

"Yes, sir," Maxx said proudly. "Although Snow Sabrina put up quite a fight."

"I can see that. Grey, go to Erica to get your injuries tended to."

He bowed and left.

"Now, you must be wondering why you are here."

"Not really," Annabeth said. "Our quest is a threat to your plans, which is why you needed to stop us. And every monster we've met has told us that you've been trying to get your hands on Snow and Topaz."

"Yes, well in any case, you must at least be wondering what will become of you."

"You'll kill us?" Percy guessed.

"That would be the logical assumption. However, though we can't have you go tattling to the Olympians, we are not going to kill you. You are still valuable to us. You will be kept here, all of you, as leverage for your parents. You may even want to join us in time."

He stood and came toward us. He pulled the gags off their faces and cupped Topaz's face in his hands. "My, how you both have grown. Even more beautiful than I remembered. More violent too," he chuckled. "But then again, you always did have a mean streak. I am sorry to hear about your brother by the way. So tragic. You have my condolences."

"Please, take them to their cells. And leave me alone with the twins here."

"Over my dead body." I said. Somehow I broke the ropes binding me and I flew at Maxx. I stabbed him with my sword, and kicked him to the ground. I slit Bella's throat, and I was about to go after Prometheus, and he yelled "Prisoner resisting! Everyone in here now!"

Tons of footsteps rushed toward the door, but I didn't care. I tackled him to the ground and sliced his stomach open, taking out his liver. I remembered Snow's threat from earlier and shoved it down his throat.

I prepared myself for the hordes of demigods coming towards me. I raised thousands of the dead, and they stood there waiting for my orders.

All the Titan demigods rushed in the door, armed to the teeth. "Kill them!" I yelled to them. They started to advance, surrounding the demigods. I watched with glee, waiting for them to be torn apart.

I noticed something black propped up against Prometheus' desk. It was forked twice at the top, and the handle twisted and turned like thorns. It couldn't be...

My fathers staff.

I was sure that there was some kind of trap, he wouldn't just leave it out in the open, but then again he had faith in his little villains. He didn't expect us to escape. I picked it up, and thankfully nothing happened. I liked the way it felt in my hands. It gave me a sense of power.

"Guys! I found it! Let's get out of here!"

We held hands and shadow traveled back to camp. We landed on the hill, and my knees were shaking a little bit.

Snow came over. "You okay? I know that was a long way for one jump."

"I'm perfect. You're okay. That's all that matters."

She smiled and I held her for a little while. "Hey lovebirds!" Leo shouted. "We need to take this thing to the big house and show Chiron and Mr. D. And hold it for me, this thing weighs a jillion pounds!"

"Quit calling it 'this thing' Leo," I said with a glare.

"Yeah, just take it di Angelo, before my arms fall off."

I rolled my eyes and took it from him. We strolled down to the big house, and I felt unusually happy. We had completed the quest, killed all the evil demigods, and Snow and Topaz were fine and still with us, free. Not to mention how proud my Father would be.

I felt a smile on my face, though I hadn't tried to put it there. This was a strange feeling. I felt pride and accomplishment, not just the feeling I get when I'm around the people I love.

The world was perfect. The leaves were turning, and everything was a mass of fire colors. We walked into the parlor of the big house, and not even Mr. D's sneer could bring me down.

"Well looky here. The earl of emo is finally smiling." Mr. D retorted.

I killed the smile and replaced it with a glare.

"I see you have completed your quest." Chiron said cheerfully.

"With flying colors," Annabeth said. "We discovered that the Titans had their own demigod offspring, and Nico... wiped them out. Completely."

Mr. D suddenly looked concerned, an expression I'd never seen on him.

"The Titans...have their own demigods. The power those children must have...The chaos, the destruction. They may very well be able to kill the gods."

Chieon smiled kindly. "It's all right, Mr. D, they're dead. It will take years for them to have more and let them grow up, and now that we know we'll be able to stop them."

The wine god shook his head. "I must go speak with my Father." And evaporated in a shower of grapes.

"Well Nico, you'd best be off. You need to return that staff to your Father in the Underworld."

"I'll come with you," Snow said.

"That'd be great."

"How do you want to get there? You probably shouldn't shadow travel again."

I knew a way... but I pushed it out of my mind. It wasn't finished yet. It was too dangerous.

I remembered another one I had just created, though it was not close. "I know one. But you're not going to like where it is."

"What-"

"Just trust me. I'll tell you outside."

"Okay." I took her hand and we went down the steps and back into the cold. It made me feel better.

"It's in New Orleans."

She put her face in her hands. "My gods, Nico. When my Father finds out...he already doesn't like you. And why would you put it there, in one of the most haunted cities in the world, where spirits could escape and hide from Thanatos?"

"I know, I know. But I needed easy access to the Underworld when I was doing all those projects."

"Alright. I'll let it slide. But my Father can't know. Okay?"

"Okay. Let's go."

"Give me the staff. I'll put it in my bag." I did.

She looked up. "Are we taking a taxi in New York to the airport?"

"Yeah. I thought maybe I could do a small jump to get there."

"That's fine I guess. I don't want to turn into Will. Topaz is just lucky she can't get hurt, or she would have to deal with that too."

"Thanks."

"But you have to take some nectar when you're done."

"Don't nag."

"I'm not!"

"But, yes, I will."

"Thank you. Don't pull a Percy on me."

"Never." I wrapped my arm around her waist, and dove into the darkness.

Snow is the only person I've ever met not afraid of Shadow traveling. It exites her. It even scared me the first few times I did it.

We landed in an alley in New York. It was very dark, and there was a dead body in a dumpster.

"Wow, they really do have a lot of crime here," Snow said.

"Uh-huh. Let's get out of here before we attract trouble."

"I took that risk when I came here with you. It comes with the territory of dating you."

I laughed. "I know."

She handed me the flask she brought, and I took a small sip.

It tasted like the apple pie my father always had the undead servants fix, because it was my favorite.

We started to walk out of the alley, but someone slammed Snow against the dirty wall.

"Hey, Jace, look at this hottie." He licked his lips. The disgusting pervert.

Snow gripped his shoulder and kicked him in the groin several times. She knocked him to the ground and started pounding his head on the pavement. When she was satisfied with the amount of blood, she got up and followed me onto the street.

"Is that guy dead?" I asked her.

"I think so. Serves him right. I doubt I was the first girl he did that to. I was just the first one that knew how to fight back."

"You're my little blood covered Snow White."

She laughed. "Wait, do I have blood on me? That would look suspicious if a cop saw me."

"Just a little on your neck, let me get it for you." I touched her neck, and the blood soaked into my fingers.

"I didn't know you could do that."

"Yeah. Just figured it out a couple months ago. First time I've had a chance to use it."

"It's cool."

"Thanks. I like your purple mist too."

She smiled. We walked down Main Street until we saw a taxi, and we stopped it and got in.

"The Airport, please." She said to him.

He took the cigarette out of his mouth and tallied it up. "That'll be 44.29."

She handed him a hundred dollar bill. "Keep the change."

He smiled with his tobacco stained teeth."Well, thank you, miss. Very nice of you."

He muttered something about his wife and stepped on the gas.

When we got there we had to wade through the crowds of people. There must have been half of Manhattan there.

Since we had no tickets, we went to the admission counter.

There was a pretty red headed woman in her 40s behind the counter.

"Do you have any seats available to New Orleans?" Snow asked once she was off the phone.

"Let me check," she said and started typing in her computer.

"Good news. We have two spots on the 426 flight. It leaves at 11 AM. But they're in the back. Is that okay?"

"That's great. We don't mind them being in the back."

"Alright. That will be 419.34. Cash or credit?"

The lady was shocked when Snow pulled out one of her wallets (yeah, just ONE of them) and it was dripping with hundreds and twenties. She handed them to her, and she took it, her eyes still wide.

"Here are your tickets. Make sure you get that messenger bag checked through security. Have a nice flight!"

When we got to the security checkpoint, we had to wait in line for the longest time, and when we finally got to the front, the security officer had green hair all over his arms. Wait...green hair.

I looked more closely and saw that the hair was actually scales. A monster. Snow's wide eyes confirmed my suspicions.

"Just step through the metal detector, honey, and put that bag in the searching bin. The young man behind you is next."

She obviously didn't want to, but she didn't want to cause a scene either, so she complied. She walked through and came out clean, despite her two daggers. She rushed over to supervise the bag inspection.

The guy checking looked just like the other one, except with red scales, so they looked like Christmas demons.

She must have used magic on the bag, because all he found was a laptop, her schoolbooks, more wallets, her cell phone, and some lip gloss.

"Clear!" He said grumpily.

"Your turn." Red demon told me.

He ran me through the metal detector and it beeped for a second and stopped. Probably Snow did that.

"I'm gonna need to search you, sir."

"What? But it came out clear!"

"Come to the back room." He ordered.

"I'm coming with him." Snow insisted.

"That won't be nesessary, miss." Red demon said.

"No, no, let her come. She won't stop you from completing your task. She may even sweeten the deal." He said with a wink.

We walked into the "back room" which had a dim red glow, like Tartarus.

"Any last words, son of Hades?"

I almost laughed out loud. "You really think that a single minor monster can kill a son of one of the big three, and an immortal witch?"

"I see you're trying to distract me. Well it won't work. I'm going to eat you and kidnap your girlfriend."

"Yeah, okay." I said nearly falling over myself. "Snow, you can have this one."

"You kill him. It's not wise to make enemies. I don't want to have monsters hating me. I'll kill him if you're loosing, which, anyway, is highly unlikely."

"Fine, fine."

He prepared to pounce, and I dodged his claws and impaled him with my sword, no trouble.

"Let's catch our flight."


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

New Orleans

Nico di Angelo

The flight we had was delayed to 11:30, so we sat in the uncomfortable chairs outside the boarding hall.

"I'm going to text my dad and tell him that I'm coming home, and that the quest worked out." She told me.

"Okay. Don't want him to worry," I said.

She scrolled down to her dad in her messages, and typed: Hi, we finished our quest and we're getting the staff back to Hades. Everyone is okay, all alive with limbs attached. I'm coming home, we're about to get on the flight now. Wish you were here. Love, Snow. ㈏1

"I've got to ask something." I said.

"Go ahead."

"What happened to your brother?"

She took a deep breath. "Is this about that dream you had or what Prometheus said?"

"Kind of both."

She breathed heavily. I was worried she was having a panic attack, but she stopped once she was calm. "Back in the 1620s we were living in Paris. We were one of the elite families, and my Mother was the ultimate socialite. Parties, in and out for days. She kept trying to fix me up with one of her friends sons, who was 23, but I was in love with a criminal."

"I see you have a type."

"Don't make me laugh, Nico. Anyway, being the smart person he always was Albus found out. He wasn't going to tell on me, who knows what my parents would have done. He decided to go and kill him."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing. I didn't know. He confronted me when he discovered the truth, and he said that I should do what my heart told me, and if I was in love he couldn't stop me, and he would respect that. He said if...the criminal laid a finger on me, he would get rid of him."

"And...did he?

"No! He wouldn't have tried to hurt me. But Albus lied, and he started looking around, trying to find him, with a pistol in hand. He found him, and shot him in the chest. That should have been the end of it. But his ghost started haunting him in his dreams, tormenting him about everything he feared. Later he appeared to him in real life, and did the same. Eventually...he went mad. Started seeing ghosts...everywhere, belittling him."

"He tried to burn down several churches because a dead little girl told him to. We had to institutionalize him. But the problem was, they noticed he wasn't aging. We had to move him around a lot, when he got to the point he would have been 50 if he had aged properly. When you get over 50, you get a few wrinkles and usually back problems, no matter the circumstance. We realized that we could just cloud the minds of the mortals working at the asylum into thinking that was the norm, and have them forget the fact when it came to the other patients."

"Despite the treatment, he didn't get better," There were tears in her eyes. This was the second time I'd seen her cry. "His state of mind didn't improve, and he was never the same as he was again. You don't know...the pain I went through, the pain I'm still going through..." She sobbed and I held her in my arms.

I stroked her hair. "Do you think Mr. D could help?"

"No," she said, her voice muffled. "He's good with the madness of mortals, immortals don't go mad often."

"Oh."

She got up. "I'm sorry. I'm being a burden. We're here to return the staff. I shouldn't make you feel bad just for my sake."

"No! You're not a burden! You could never be a burden to me! I WANT to make you feel better because I love you. I want to make this right. Do you think I could help with the ghosts?"

"Maybe. I'm not sure exactly how that works. They may not even be real."

"Well, I'll try. Let me hold you again."

"Okay." She did and we sat like that for a while, and I breathed in her scent, like vanilla and black cherries. Then our flight got called.

We boarded the plane, and sat at the back. We ordered lunch, since it was a long flight. Snow seemed to cheer up on the plane. She likes air travel. She looked out the window, at the clouds blooming below us. We were so high up we couldn't see the snowflakes falling.

"Hey, guess what happened with Will and Topaz?"

"What?" I asked, curious.

"They broke up."

"What? Why?"

"Topaz said he said some mean things when he was upset, and she dumped him. I wonder what he could have said. Topaz has pretty thick skin. Comes from her abundance of pride."

"And you don't have an abundance of pride?"

"I didn't say that. Runs in my family."

I chuckled. "I don't know who's side to take. I mean, I like Topaz. She's super badass, and she's your twin. But Will is like my best friend."

"Just stay neutral. That's what I'm doing. They'll probably get back together, and you don't want to say anything against them while they're mad at them, because when they get over it they'll know how you truly feel, and they'll see you in a different light."

"Wise words."

"Thanks. That gets hard to uphold with all the clicky girls at my school."

"You have clicks?"

"Well, yeah. It's a private school full of rich kids."

"What click are you in?"

"The popular group, I guess. All the richest families have always hung out together. We've been family friends since New Orleans was founded. Topaz talks to all the troublemakers of the school."

"Naturally."

She laughed. "They're actually pretty cool, I talk to them to, sometimes. Topaz comes over to my friends, and she likes them, but she wants to break rules. She keeps her friends from getting punished for their evil doings because the elite families kind of get special treatment."

"What do you mean?"

"We can do anything we want during class, skip school, wander around the building, eat lunch whenever we want, harass the teachers and they can't say anything back."

"Wow. That's cool. Your school sounds fun."

"It is." She paused for a moment, thinking. "You know, you never finished school. You should start coming to mine. You could meet my friends and the rest of my family."

"That's true. I went to a few schools before Westover Hall, but they were always just for a few months before we moved. The longest time I spent at a school was the military one, but there were FAR too many rules. A rich kids school with no rules...that's tempting."

"I'll ask my dad if it's okay. If he says yes, we'll be able to spend more time together."

"That would be great." She said.

A flight attendant came to our seat and gave us our hamburgers. Snow thanked her and she left.

"You're 16, and your birthday was in October, so you'd be a junior like me."

"That's good. We'd have classes together."

"I actually have all honors classes, but if you're up to it I can get you into those."

"Are they hard to take?"

"Hmmm, not really, but you're smart. I think you would do well."

"Well, thanks."

"When we're done in the Underworld, I want to show you around town. I know you've been there before, on business, but I want to show you all my favorite places."

"That sounds great. Any ex boyfriends I should beware of?"

"Just a few," She said, looking down.

"Hey, guess what?"

"What?"

"There's a ghost on the plane."

"Where?" She said, looking all around.

"He's floating above the window of the seat next to us."

The seat in question had a couple wearing Hawaiian shirts, khaki shorts, and sandals, probably returning from a honeymoon. The ghost was crushed around his stomach, and was floating, no, he was attached to the wall of the plane, and was solemnly strumming his guitar.

"Died in a car crash, I think. They reused the metal, and his soul was attached to it. So now he's stuck on the plane," I told her.

"Poor guy. He must be so bored."

"Yeah, sitting up here all day, but I've seen worse. I remember this one ghost-"

 _"We are beginning our decent. Please buckle your seat belts and stay calm. We are experiencing some turbulence."_

Theplane spun around 3 times. Several women screamed, but Snow just sat there smiling. ' _That's my girl'_ I thought.

" _Sorry about that folks. If you look out your windows, you can see New Orleans. We will be landing in 5 minutes."_

Snow got out a mirror and started checking her eyeliner. It looked good to me, but she seemed to think it was smeared and fixed it.

"Does that look better?"

"You always look beautiful, even with a microscopic eyeliner smudge."

She smiled. "Thanks, Angel Boy."

"You have never called me that before."

"I know, I just came up with it."

"Well, I guess it's better than Death Boy."

"People at camp are just jealous because they're not as awesome as you."

"So true. All they can do is shoot arrows and make vines grow. I summon armies. Top that Percy."

"Yeah, all Percy can do is control water. You are so much more amazing."

"Totally."

" _We are now landing in New Orleans. Pleas exit your seats in an orderly fashion, and walk in a single file line down the aisle. Enjoy your stay in New Orleans!"_


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

New Orleans

Nico di Angelo

We got off the plane around 1, and caught a taxi from the airport. We had him drop us off at the French Quarter because the cemetery without a tour is kind of suspicious. He would probably think we were up to no good, because a lot of criminals liked to lurk around there when the gates are open during the day.

Snow seemed happy to be home again. She said hi to several people on the street and introduced me to them. The old woman with the expensive clothes said "Oh," really loudly when she learned I was her boyfriend. Probably the chains and leather did that.

"So, where is the entrance? Lafayette Cemetery, I'm guessing."

"Yeah, in an empty crypt."

"Cool, let's go!" She said swinging her arm into mine.

"I was lucky enough to find the one girl in the world who's not afraid of dead people."

"Yeah, I'm awesome."

"You really are."

"Let's go!" She hummed _we're off to see the wizard_ in her sweet voice.

"Why wizard of oz?" I asked, beginning to get hypnotized by her song.

"Slightly similar situation. Just what popped into my head. What's wrong with Wizard of Oz?"

"Nothing, it just reminds me of my childhood in the 40s a little. I can almost remember, but at the same time I can't and it's painful."

"I could show you flashes if you want," She offered. "Or dreams."

"Thanks, but we should do that later. We have something to do right now."

She nodded in agreement and started humming again. People were starting to follow us, trying to get closer to the music. Snow seemed to realize this and stopped. We were approaching the cemetery now. This was the part of New Orleans I knew best.

We walked through the gates and worked our way around the tall tombstones. Finally we got to the crypt, which was in the center of the graveyard.

"There's a tour group coming around. Hurry!" Snow said.

I pushed her behind the tombstone. "So why is it empty?" She asked.

"They were planning to bury the body of a yellow fever victim here, and put the engraving on and everything, but the body was buried at the family's house instead."

"Okay, so how do open it?"

"You push this down," I said working as I talked. "And then there's an opening to put my sword in." I put my sword in the hole and twisted. The entire back wall of the tombstone went downward, revealing stairs.

"After you." She stepped in and I took my sword out and closed it behind us.

We progressed down the stairs. "Wow, how long did this take to build?"

"Hazel helped me out," I explained.

It was completely dark except for Snow's sapphire necklace, which was glowing.

"Why is your necklace glowing?"

"It usually does that when I'm underground. Other times too, but mostly underground."

"It didn't do that at Alcatraz."

"It did, I was just fingering it so that everyone wouldn't see. Leo would make some stupid joke and I'd get questioned about my past."

"'The past can be painful, yes, but we can either run from it or learn from it.'"

"Oh, my gods, did you just quote lion king? Finally, my Disney movies are rubbing off on you!"

"Yeah, you said there was life lessons to learn from those movies and you were right. Happy?"

"Thoroughly. So what is the moral of lion king?" She said smugly.

I looked at the ceiling. "This is why I've gotten by without real school."

"What is the moral?" She asked again.

"Everyone has a crazy uncle. Don't trust them."

"I'll accept that. Your sister said the moral is that hyenas are scary and can't be trusted. You children of Hades must have some trust issues."

"Yeah, little bit. What do YOU think the moral is?"

"Life goes on. Simba loved his Father, but his death was necessary to build his character. It changed him from an innocent little kid into an much cooler alpha lion. Yes, it was sad, but it helped him transform into the king he was meant to be and strengthen him enough to defeat Scar."

"That's so much better than mine. And...highly relatable."

She seemed to realize what she'd said. "Oh, Nico, I didn't mean-"

"No it's fine. I'm better now. I'll admit that. But the past is hard to get over."

"Indeed it is, Angel boy."

I smiled. "How do you always know how to make me feel better?"

"Comes naturally to me. I've always been good at comforting."

"I wish I was like that. I'm just good at creating a dark atmosphere."

"I LIKE your dark atmosphere. And you're good at tons of other stuff, too."

I smiled again. Then I realized we had reached the end of the stairs.

"Hey, where are we? I mean in the Underworld."

"The vale of mourning. This is where the spirits consumed by unhappy love dwell."

"I've never seen this place before."

"That's why the entrance leads here. It's out of the way, so I can enter discreetly and not attract attention."

There were spirits in every direction crying while Adele music played above us. Some of them were eating ice creams and squirting whipped cream in their mouths. They all seemed to be victims of terrible breakups.

"Come on, let's move through here quickly," I said. "This is without a doubt the most depressing place in the Underworld." I noticed Snow was turned away from me. I turned her around and looked at her face. Her eyes were wide and shattered and she seemed to have a million thoughts running through her head.

I started to worry about her. "Come on, let's go." She didn't move. She was...paralyzed with sadness. We had to get out of here. I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder, and ran out of there as fast as I could. When we got to the fields of Asphodel, she seemed to regain consciousness.

"Nico, put me down, I'm fine!" I did what she said.

"That place...I remembered...terrible things."

"It's okay. We won't leave that way. We can shadow travel or something."

"O-okay." I wondered what all had happened to her that she had seen back there.

"Hey. Let's get going. We're almost there. The palace is just up ahead. Can you see it in the distance?"

She was silent.

I held her hand and we walked toward the palace. When we got there, there were two knights guarding the doors. They parted their swords and let us pass.

Once we were in the hallway, Snow handed me the staff. "You give it to him. You've earned it."

"Thanks." I said, glad she was letting me do it. My Father would be so proud.

The undead guards from different eras lined the hallway. They opened the door to the Throne Room and we walked in.

My Father was lounging on his throne already. I got the feeling he'd been waiting for us.

"Father." I knelt. "I have brought you your staff, which I retrieved from Prometheus himself."

He bent down and took it.

"Yes, I know, son. Quite an impressive display. A demigod is extremely dangerous when they are angry. One of my children is ten times more. But, you know, they are not all dead like you think. Only 3 died, and they were all of minor parentage, and wouldn't have been much use to the Titans. Those two you killed with your own hands are fine too. Prometheus healed them, and most of them ran away. Those children were trained well in combat, and it shows. I don't think any of the demigods at Camp Half-Blood could withstand such an attack, with their efforts combined."

"So, they're still plotting to destroy the gods? Where are they?"

"I do not know where they are residing, but I advise you to tell my brother about this, because in his rage, he will find Prometheus, and thus the children."

"Dionysus already told Zeus, but I don't know if he has informed the rest of the gods yet. He wouldn't want panic," Snow said to him.

"Yes. You should inform Poseidon, Athena, Ares and Hephaestus at the very least. They will want revenge."

"When we get back, we can send Caspia, Percy, Blade, Leo and Annabeth to Olympus to tell them."

"Very well, Nico. My dear, are you alright after your close call with being taken by Prometheus?"

"Yes, Hades. Thanks to Nico and his rage." Snow said with a smile.

"Admit it, you think my anger is hot."

"I admit it. Being clearheaded is so last year."

"I know you do."

"Well, if-"

The lord of the dead cleared his throat. "When you two are done flirting, would you like to join us for dinner?"

"You mean with Persephone?" Nico asked cautiously.

"Yes. It is winter."

"Okay, Dad." I said.

"Snow, would you like to as well?"

"That depends, do you have cell reception?"

"A little, why?"

"I need to inform my Father I'll be home late. He worries terribly. He does notlike your son. He will think he has gotten me into mischief." She walked off to go call him.

Hades turned back toward me."My son, do not be mistaken. I am proud of you for this accomplishment. It is no small feat to defeat a Titan and 19 demigods single handedly. You have done well."

His words filled me with joy. Pleasing him was a huge accomplishment. I was happier than I had been when we got back from the quest.

"Good news. He said yes. But he said if I come back in the same clothes with my hair messed up Nico will get a bullet in his head."

My Father chuckled. The only people I've ever seen made him laugh were Snow, Topaz and Sapphire probably because they were all so quirky.

"Splendid. Let's go into the dining room and eat. Persephone is waiting for us."

He shrunk down to human size and we followed him into the dining room. Persephone was sitting to the right of the head chair, wearing a red dress with roses on it.

"Good! You're back. I've been waiting for the longest time."

Hades kissed her cheek and sat down. "I'm sorry, my dove. There were some complications."

"It's alright, my love, I'm just happy that Nico's quest succeeded. I'm glad you have your staff again."

Thr servants brought the food in. While everyone started eating, Persephone said "Nico, why don't you tell us about your quest." I was shocked by the affection she spoke with.

"Well, okay. So, first we went to San Fransisco, and we visited the Muir Woods park, because we needed to find monsters to tell us what their plans were. We found this empousai, and Topaz..."

Dinner went by quickly, because it was pleasant. We were about to leave when I realized that I hadn't asked about Snow's school.

"Father, you know how I haven't been to any schools since Westover Hall?"

"What are you insinuating, Nico? Get to the point!"

"Can I start going to Snow's school in New Orleans?"

"I should think that would be fine. You do need an education after all. But where will you stay?"

"We have plenty of empty guest rooms at my house. He could stay in one of those to put my Father's nerves at ease."

"Very well. But promise me you'll write to me, Nico."

"I promise, Father."

"Alright. Goodbye, son."

"Goodbye, Father."

I took Snow's hand and we ended up back on the streets of New Orleans.

"So where do you live?" I asked her.

"I'll show you. We walked to the other side of town to a green grass covered area surrounding the road. Then there was a long driveway, that went on longer than the walk there. Finally I saw a huge 5 story white columned house as big as two malls.

The grounds were surrounded with fruit trees and wildflowers, as well as rose bushes all around the house and beds of lillies and tulips. There was a brook to the side, which gleamed in the sunset.

"Wow." Was all I could say.

Snow grimaced. "It's too much, I think."

"Are you kidding? It's amazing!"

"Well, thank you." She walked up the stone steps and rang the doorbell.

A man in a suit came to the door and opened it. He had dark hair, a handsome, distinguished face, with a thinish mustache above his lip.

"Hey, Jared," Snow said, and gave him a hug.

He let go and smiled."Hello, Miss Sabrina. Good to have you back."

"You...have a BUTLER?"

Jared chuckled. "You don't really think a house like this comes without servants? I am one of many serving the Sabrina/Karl household."

"He's not a butler, Nico. He's like family."

"I'm sorry. Pleased to meet you...Jared."

"Mr. Smith, if you don't mind. I prefer the formal tittle when it comes to newcomers. The family likes to call me by my first name. I don't mind. Please, come in! Don't stay outside on a hot day like this."

"Thank you Mr. Smith."

I stepped into the house. It was even more amazing on the inside. The first room was a two story foyer with a sweeping marble staircase in the center, and bars around the second floor part that allowed you to look down. Towards the back of the room was French doors that led off to an orchard. At least five rooms branched off, including a small library, a parlor, a living room, a drawing room, and what looked like an aquarium, along with several hallways.

"Wow." I said again.

"Yes, I suppose the house is pretty 'wow'. Miss Sabrina, would you like me to get your bag?"

"Sure, thanks," she said and handed it to him.

"You know, a young gentleman should always offer to help a lady with what she's carrying. I think Mr. Karl will insist on a cotillion."

I had no idea what that was, but Snow shot me a look of warning, and I knew it was to be revered.

"You admire the house I see," Mr. Smith said as we walked up the grande staircase. "It's over 300 years old. It's seen six wars, and the yellow fever plague. Naturally, it's been renovated a bit, but the family has kept it more or less the same structure. Hasn't knocked the walls down. It's been in his family for so long, he wouldn't want to."

"Has he talked about me?" I asked.

"I'm inclined not to answer that question," He said.

"That's a yes," Snow said with a smile.

He ignored the comment and said,"Snow, would you like me to take this up to your room?"

"Yes, please." He turned left and started progressing down the hall.

"Snow, when can I meet the rest of your family?" I asked as she led me down the hall.

"Probably later. Everyone is out right now. The time is different here than Los Angelos, and it's 5 here and 7 there. Topaz is flying back in, my Dad is working, My mom is here, but she and my dad are going to a business dinner party tonight. My...other brothers are doing some volenteer work after school, and my little sis is here! Do you want to meet her?"

"Sure! What's her name?"

"Garnet. Karl."

"What's the deal with the split last name thing anyway?"

"Well, my mom wanted to keep her name, and she decided to give us hers. Garnet has my Dad's, because it goes better with her first name, and all my brothers have that name."

"I see," I said, and looked around. "Are we lost? I don't remember which way we came." We were in a red velvety carpeted hallway, and there seemed to be rooms going in every direction.

"Nico, I've liven here for three hundred years. I know my way around."

"Okay, but this place is huge. I'm sure you can get lost."

She rolled her eyes. "It's smaller than your Fathers palace I think. You know your way around there."

"I'm pretty sure they're about the same...And that place is familiar to me...Ohhhhhh."

"Yeah. The staircase is around this next turn. Sure enough, there was a staircase from the first floor to the fourth. "There's two elevators, also, I'll show you another time."

"Why two?"

"They're at opposite ends of the house. The third floor is where her room is."

"Okay, turn left, then two rights."

Finally we got there. It was white double doors, and they had black hearts painted on gem and etchings of twilight sparkle.

"Twilight sparkle is the best my little pony," Snow said.

She knocked on the door. "Garnet! I'm back!"

There was the sound of things being knocked over. I winced when I heard a head hit the door. A little girl opened the door. At first all I saw was the top of her head, but then she took Snow's hand tenderly and led her into her room.

It was nice. It was big and the walls were painted in pretty rainbow swirls, with silver furniture. When you walked in, there was a purple couch which circled around a flat screen tv. There was a huge shelf with colorful picture and chapter books. Her hot pink canopy bed was in the back of the room and it was covered in stuffed animals with another tv in front of it. There was a bathroom that smelled like bath and body works, a huge walk in closet and a room bigger than her bedroom with tons of toys in it. Basically, it was every little girl's dream.

Garnet sat on her bed. She was a pretty little girl, she had tight auburn waves, and big blue eyes like her mother. She was wearing a purple glittery dress, black converse and diamond heart jewelry. She wore purple sparkle eyeshadow, light blush, and pink lip gloss. Her nails were painted pink with little cherries.

She was the most glamorous child I'd ever seen.

"Where have you been? You said you'd be back 3 days ago." Garnet asked furiously.

"I had to go on a quest, Garnet."

She was suddenly interested. "A quest? What for? Who's leading it? And who's this stranger you have brought past my threshold?"

"This is my boyfriend, Nico di Angelo."

She looked me over. "I wonder how long you'll last."

"He's a demigod. The son of Hades."

"Hades is cool. I've met him, but I support Aphrodite's values more thoroughly."

"Thanks. Aphrodite's not nearly as pretty as your sister, though."

She looked at Snow. "He's a kiss up."

She laughed.

"He led the quest."

"Really? I have an understanding that Hades is not trusted by the gods."

"Uh, not particularly, but the quest was for something that was taken from him."

"What?"

"Well, someone thought they were being funny and stole his staff from him."

She looked at her sister. "Is he trying to sugar coat it because he doesn't think I can handle the information?"

"Nico, don't lie to her. She always sees through that. She may be young, but she's clever, and besides, she already knows about the Titans."

"Okay. So they stole his staff to bribe the monsters into joining them. They were going to resurrect them in exchange for their allegiance."

"But you stopped them?"

"Yes."

"Cool. You guys wanna see my new dollhouse?"

"Sure." We said simultaneously.

We walked into her toy room. It was painted the same way as her bedroom, and was the size of half a ballroom. In the back was what I think is every Lego set ever made, and to the right was tons and tons of Barbie doll houses. There must have been thousands of dolls, too. In the center were anamatronic pony rides that must have costed a fortune. On the wall was a shrine to Peter Pan, with a poster with lipstick on it. On the other part of the room was those tiny plastic barbies I could never remember the name of. Started with a P...Polly...Polly Pockets. There was another walk in closet, filled with dress up clothes, which led off from this room.

She pointed to a 3 story purple dollhouse in the center of the dollhouses, covered in, you guessed it, glitter. "Daddy got it for me when he was on business in Spain. Pretty, huh?"

"So pretty. And it's my favorite color, too."

"Do you wanna play? You can be Barbie this time. But don't get used to it."

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I will play with you some other time, I promise. But Nico is a boy. I think he would feel kind of left out if we played dolls."

"I guess you're right."

"Hey, why don't you tell Nico about your school."

She looked at me. "I'm popular."

"Tell him more than that, Garnet."

"I'm in the 3rd grade at Garden Grove Elementery. It's a private school. We always have to go to private schools. Mommy and Daddy insist upon it."

"It's not so bad. They give you a better education, and anyways, it's not like you can get in trouble." Snow said.

"I WANT to get in trouble. It makes life more interesting," Garnet grumbled.

Snow sighed. "You sound like Topaz."

"Good. Topaz is awesome." She then looked at me. "How old are you?"

"It's complicated."

"Everyone in this house's age is complicated. Except me, because I'm boring and I was born 8 years ago. And of course Jared, because he's mortal. We love him still."

"Okay, well the big three gods decided to make a pact not to have any more children. They thought they were too dangerous, too unpredictable."

"True," Snow coughed.

"But Hades had already had...a child. Back in the 40s he had an affair with a mortal woman. So he decided to hide the child in the Lotus Hotel and Casino. They never aged, and 70 years was like a few weeks. When they came out, it was modern times, and only then they started to age."

"So, you're like 80?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Huh. Well you have a nickname now."

"Which is?"

"The old man."

"Garnet, that's not very nice!" Snow chided.

"Sorry, but all of you here are thousands of years older than 80." I retorted.

"Yes, but 80 is he age of an elderly mortal, but thousands of years is the age of an immortal."

"That's...actually a good point." I admitted.

"But Garnet, please don't call him the old man," Snow said in exasperation.

"Okay. So, the boyfriend, do you want to see my bunny?" Garnet rebelled.

"Don't call him the boyfriend either." Snow said, exasperated.

"Sorry, Garnet, animals don't like me much."

"No, Rodrick likes EVERYONE. I'm sure he'll like you," She reassured.

She walked back over to her bed, and I for the first time noticed a soft, bunny sized bed, raised to the height of hers, with the same sheets and everything on it.

Poor Rodrick had a fluffy pink bed. Garnet picked him up gingerly. He was a cute brown bunny with white spots. "Here, want to hold him?"

It was actually pretty tempting. "Okay. I'll try." But no sooner had the bunny touched my hands did he scamper away, and hide in the closet.

"Huh. I guess you were right." She said.

Snow's phone made a texting noise.

"Oh, it's Scarlett. They're all going to get coffee, want to come with, Angel?"

"Yuck! Coffee." Garnet said.

"Sure."

"Bye, Garnet. See ya later!"

"I love how you just abandon me at the first chance to hang out with your friends," Garnet grumbled.

"It's not that, Garnet, I want him to meet my friends before we go to school tomorrow."

"Yeah, well, have fun."

"Thanks. I'll tuck you in tonight if you want."

"That would be nice." Garnet said, though she was still sad.

"I enjoyed meeting you," I told her.

"You too, I guess."

On that note, we were out the door.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The Bean Gallery

Nico di Angelo

After a particularly long walk, we arrived at the parking garage, which was huge and two floors. It took a lot of willpower not to say "wow" again.

Snow picked one of her cars, a silver Porsche. We got in and drove off. The interior was nice, too. It had leather seats, and an amathyst butterfly mirror charm. It was purple. There was a bunch of shopping bags in the back that hadn't been taken in yet.

Taylor Swift played on the speaker. That was her favorite singer, and I always pretended to complain, but really I kind of liked her music too. Snow liked a lot of hardcore kind of music too, like me.

"Sorry about Garnet," She apologized. "She's always mean to my boyfriends. But she was nicer to you than any of them."

"S'okay. All she really did was call me an old man and 'the boyfriend.'"

She laughed. "Yeah, well it's good you didn't think she was that bad because my brothers are going to be worse and my Father is going to give you hell."

"Well, that's...that's...I need a positive adjective."

She laughed. "Oh, we're here." It was a small neat building with a green sunshade with the words _Bean_ _Gallery_ painted on it. She parked on the curb and we got out of the car. We walked up to the door.

"After you," I said and held the door for her.

There was a very calm atmosphere inside, there was a counter with a menu plastered on the wall behind it and the seating area was filled with couches seated around low tables.

"Snow!" Several people shouted.

"Hey, guys! I'm back!"

"Where have you been?" One girl asked.

"Topaz and I had a business affair in New York. After that, I spent some time in Los Angelos with my boyfriend and his parents."

"Is this your boyfriend?" A guy asked.

"Yeah, his name is Nico di Angelo."

"That sounds Italian," One guy stated.

"It is."

"Why don't you all tell Nico your names, I'm going to get some coffee and a sandwich. Angel, you want anything?"

"Just a latte."

"Kay." She went over to the counter.

"I'm Scarlett Stone." She looked like a stereotypical model, very pretty, with curled blonde hair, clear blue eyes, and a perfect figure.

"I'm Sterling Deran," A very good looking guy with shoulder length dark hair and warm brown eyes.

"Aurora Lawrence," She was a stunningly pretty blonde girl with brown eyes. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't place why.

Next was a beautiful dark haired girl named Helene Flores.

"I'm Harvey Evans," The guy had a dangerous vibe around him, and he had dark hair and eyes that were almost black.

Snow handed me my drink and sat next to me. "I see you've all finished introducing yourselves. Hey, where is everyone?"

"Europe." Scarlett said.

"Why are they all in Europe? Schools about to start."

"They planned a trip to make them feel better because they all got Hoffman," Helene explained.

"Ooooh, Hoffman for psychology. Ouch. I heard he intentionally fails everyone."

"He DOES!" Aurora exclaimed. "My brother Brent was a straight A student, he did all his homework and studied and everything, but Hoffman intentionally had the school buy a bad grading machine, and refused to redo the grades when they found out they were not all failing grades. But if you suck up to him, he gives you a written test and grades it himself."

"I think I'm going to have to flirt with him," Scarlett decided.

"Scarlett! He's like 52 and married!" Helene said, exasperated.

"Hey, I'm willing to do ANYTHING for good grades."

"Oh, Scarlett, you're such a slut!" Harold told her.

"You're a bigger one! And I need good grades because my Dad gets mean if I score under a 94 on anything. He says I'm dishonoring the family name."

Sterling looked very concerned. "What does he do if you go under an A-?"

"He yells and tells my Mom she needs to let him kick me out because I'm worthless and 'a danger to the family'."

"A danger to the family?" I said, and everyone jumped. I was used to that by now.

"Yeah. Weird things...tend to happen to me. My dad has always acted like he hates me, and less than perfect grades give him a great opportunity to get rid of me."

I thought it was best not to ask what "weird things" she was talking about in front of a group of mortals.

Aurora tried to change the subject. "Oh, you guys! My cousin is missing!"

"Which one? You have a big family," Harvey asked.

"Bryce. The weird one. The one who tortures animals."

"Ah, that one," Sterling said, raising his eyebrows.

"He tried to cut my puppy's head off!" Helene screamed.

"Once when he was in town, he was buying a bunch of matches and gasoline, and I asked him why and he threatened to burn me alive. I hit him, and he tried to burn my family's mansion down." Sterling said.

"He hitted on my girlfriend and ended up with some new scars," Harvey said darkly.

"He did the same to Topaz and I and tried to take a swing at her and I broke 4 of his ribs and his right hand," Snow said with a smirk.

"He tried to kill my cat, but I didn't find out until he left and he went unscathed," Scarlett said angrily.

"I know, he was terrible. But he's been missing for over a year now. I mean, I didn't really like him, but he was still family, and I hope nothing terrible has happened to him." Aurora said sadly.

"Well-"

"Shut up Harvey," Sterling snapped.

"It's okay. Whatever happened to him he probably deserved. He always goes around picking fights for no good reason."

"Speaking of fights, guess what I did today?" Harvey asked menacingly.

"Oh, God, what did you do?" Helene asked.

"A guy on the street called me 'rich boy.' He was going to beat me, but I broke his arms, carved in his face, and slit his throat." He said proudly.

"Not saying that's not cool, because it is, but how do you never get caught for all the stuff you do?" Scarlett asked with genuine interest.

"First of all, they are usually provoked. My dad can hire bottom level lawyers who can prove it wasn't my fault. Second, I'm careful. I don't tell anyone but my close friends, and I'm good at hiding bodies. A lot of experience. I'm also good at blaming other people for it and coming up with the perfect motive."

Sterling clapped his shoulder. "Don't worry, Harvey. We still love you, no matter how much of a psychopath you are."

"Hey, we're all psychopaths here. We should start a club. Snow, be in our club."

"Kay, but we're not forming a cult where we worship the ultimate divinity of the great Scarlett Stone."

"Of course not. But there may be some ritualistic murders here and there." She smiled.

"No offense, but I don't think the rest of you can join. You're too sane and empathetic. Now Nico, YOU'RE a possibility..." She mused.

"Gee, thanks," I said.

"Nothing personal. But you're dating Snow, and she tends to go for the violent type. Not much for a Prince Charming. And she beats the shit out of them too."

"Don't talk like you're not the exact same way," Snow told her.

"I know, Best Friends Forever!" She said, and they made a heart with their hands.

"So how are things with you and _Caine_?"

"Yes, how is Simmons?" Sterling said with a flash of teeth.

She sighed. "He got _arrested_."

"For what?" Snow asked, smirking.

"He ran over an old lady."

"Very characteristic," Sterling said.

"It was an ACCIDENT!"

"Yes, because accidental crimes are very prevalent with him," Snow said sarcastically.

"IT WAS!"

"How has his dad not gotten out of it?" Harold asked. First normal thing he'd said since I met him.

"It was _his_ grandmother."

"Ohhhhhh," Everyone said at once.

Helene's eyes were wide with shock. "Mrs. Simmons? Oh my God, is she okay?"

"She's fine. In the hospital though," Scarlett said reassuringly.

"Helene, what is with your weird thing with elderly people?" Sterling asked critically.

"They're sweet. They give you peppermints and chocolate chip cookies and all they ask for in return is a foot rub."

"Ew," Harvey said.

"The only old people I know call me a 'whipper snapper' and 'youngster' and yell at me to get off their lawn," Sterling told her.

"Well old men don't like teenage boys. They all like me though."

"Ew," Harvey said again.

"No, not THAT way, Harvey. They just like to spend time with me," Helene explained.

"Yeah, because THAT'S what old men are thinking about when they're with you, 'Oh, Helene, would you rub my bunions, then we can-"

"I've got to agree with Harvey, Helene. Have you SEEN Herbert the pervert?" Sterling said.

"That's _Family Guy!_ It's _a_ parody _!_ It's not really how they act."

"I beg to differ."

"Oh, shut up, Sterling."

Snow's phone beeped. "Oh, we've gotta go. Sorry guys!"

"Why?" Harvey pouted.

"Topaz's plane just landed. We have to pick her up."

"At least give me a hug."

"Okay."

She did and then Sterling asked for one too. Scarlett told her she would skype her later, and Aurora and Helene said they'd join.

Finally, we were out the door.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Snow's family

Nico di Angelo

"So, where are we meeting Topaz?" I asked once we were out of the car.

"I don't know. I'll text her. We also need to call Percy's mom and tell him to go with Annabeth to Olympus so they can tell their parents about Prometheus. We can do that later."

She texted Topaz:

 **R U off the plane yet?**

 **Yes! Abt time! I've been waiting like half an hour!**

 **Sorry! I was hanging out with friends didn't get your text.**

 **Just get here quickly**

 **Where do you want to meet?**

 **I'm at the baggage pickup waiting 4 u**

 **On my way!**

We ran down to the baggage pickup, so Topaz wouldn't get angry. I've known her to have a temper almost as bad as mine. When we got there she still looked angry.

"Finally!"

"Sorry. Crowds."

"No excuse."

"Sorry! Don't be mad!"

"I reserve that right. A creepy 49 year old man has been staring at me in the entire time you have been neglecting to come get me."

"I wasn't neglecting! I would never neglect you!"

"Then why did you take so long to get here?"

"It was a long run! I got here as fast as I could!"

"Not fast enough. Let's go."

Snow seemed very distressed. Topaz has always been the dominant one in the relationship. Actually, pretty much every relationship she's a part of. She always seems to get her way.

When we got to the car, Topaz sat in front. I didn't argue, I wanted her to calm down so she wouldn't stay angry at Snow. Besides, Snow would have just told me to, anyway. When Topaz gets like this, she does everything she says to get on her good side again.

Topaz had her feet on the dashboard, and Snow wasn't saying a word. The entire time we were in the car, Topaz was ignoring Snow, and me for some reason.

When we pulled back into the garage, Topaz got out of the car and slammed both doors behind her.

"Wow," I said. "How long do you think she'll stay like this?"

"As long as she wants," Snow said miserably.

"Maybe if you just pretend you don't care about her being mad, she'll forget."

"No, if she's mad, she's mad. Besides, I'm not THAT good at acting. She's my other half, I feel like I'm cut in two when we're not getting along."

"Sorry, my darling Snow White."

"Angel, that reminds me, what are we watching tonight?"

"I dunno."

"Either a Disney movie or the Phantom of the Opera."

"The phantom of the Opera."

"Okay. Let's go inside."

We walked in, and I asked "Where are they all?"

"I...don't know."

Her phone rang. She read the text. "It's my brother. He says they're in the leather couch room."

"You have a leather couch room?"

"Yeah, it's where we eat takeout." Her phone beeped again. "Chinese takeout."

Snow showed me where the room was and we sat down. I noticed her Father glaring at me. I tried to ignore it. He turned to the oldest son.

"Okay, Ashton, you're in charge while your Mother and I are out. Make sure Garnet eats her dinner before her dessert, make sure no one leaves the house, and try to be as rude to Snow's boyfriend as possible."

"You got it, Pops."

"Do not call me 'Pops' Ashton."

"Sorry, Dad."

"We're off," He gave each of his daughters a kiss on the cheek and an extra glare just for me.

"Okay, everyone come get your dinner and your drink," the second oldest said.

"Hey, Nicky, I'M in charge. I tell them what to do," Ashton said.

"Fine, Ashton." Nicky said with a roll of his eyes.

"Okay, everyone, come get your dinner. The drinks are in the fridge," Ashton said.

"That's literally exactly what I said."

"No, I told them where to find them."

"Yeah, like the fridge wasn't totally obvious."

"I would advise you to show respect to your superior."

"You are NOT my superior, you were just born two years before me, so Dad put you in charge."

"You literally just admitted twice that I am your superior."

"You're impossible."

"You mean I'm improbable."

"What?"

"I exist, I can't be impossible."

"I'm done with you," Nicky said, and sat down.

"So, how was your flight, Topaz?" Ashton asked, ignoring his brother.

"Terrible. Just terrible."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"No you're not."

"So are we going to play that game Dad always makes us play where we get out all our complaining before we have a conversation?"

"Totally." Topaz said enthusiastically.

"Okay. So today when I was at the mall with Ricky and Emma, I beat up some nerds and got kicked out," Nicky told us.

"I'll be Dad. WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING? YOU WANT TO REPRESENT OUR FAMILY NAME LIKE THAT? YOU ARE GUH-ROUNDED MISTER!" Snow yelled.

"Sounds like Dad." Nicky admitted then went on.

"Also, my girlfriend broke up with me."

"Why?" Snow asked, suddenly sympathetic.

"She started dating my friend."

"Ouch," Topaz said.

"That really sucks," Garnet added.

"I got a B on my Exams," Ashton said sadly.

"Wow, a B, sucks to be you. Meanwhile, I failed math and doing my best to hide it from Dad. Soon I think I'm going to have to kill my teacher, she continues to get dangerously close to calling him."

"I can help you with math if you'd like," Snow offered.

"Snow, we're supposed to be negative right now."

"Oh, right. Garnet, do you have anything else to complain about?"

"Yes, in fact I have a long list. My best friend keeps trying to invite this other girl I don't like to play with us. Three different boys chase me on the playground, and it's getting hard to escape. One of you jerks spilled water on the picture I drew today. My sparkle fairy doll is missing. I keep tripping over everything. Grandma thinks I still play with baby dolls and got one for my birthday. The fruit by the foot is 11 inches, I measured it, plus the tongue tattoos don't stay on. Half my glitter collection was stolen by the envious unattractive Marcy. There is too much strawberry in my milk. My shoelaces keep coming untied. My favorite ruby necklace has a broken chain. Rodrick has been eating my jelly beans and-"

"That's probably enough complaining Garnet." Ashton cut off.

"Fine, but don't blame me if I let some complaints slip."

"Snow what about you?"

"Well, let's see. Yesterday I was almost kidnapped twice, and the day before, and today as well, though those monsters were kind of pathetic. I was paralyzed for 15 minutes earlier, and I arrived late to pick up my darling twin, and I feel terrible about it."

She rolled her eyes.

"Topaz?"

"I was forced to wait THIRTY MINUTES for Snow to drive me home from the airport, all the while a CREEPY OLD MAN staring at me like a pedophile. And then the sister in question begged for my forgiveness annoyingly. My boyfriend said some unforgivable things and I had to break up with him, as well as during the quest being the only one not dating someone on the quest, because he wasn't there. Oh, and I also was almost kidnapped."

"Uh, Nico, is it? Do you have anything to complain about?"

"Hmmm, no not really. I'm pretty happy right now, and I don't really want the first thing I say to be negative."

"Fair enough. So, what is this business about you being kidnapped on your quest?" Ashton asked.

"Can I tell you later? Garnet is here."

"Sure, sure."

"So what have you been up to while we were gone?"

"Well, I'm kind of dating your friend Alice." Ashton said, blushing.

Snow smiled at her brother. "That's nice. She's smart and a rule follower like you."

"Yeah. And I've been doing some volenteer work." He said proudly.

"That's good. For what?"

"Helping with the Katrina reconstruction."

"Oh, thank god, more people are finally doing that. Half this city is still in shambles after that hurricane, and no one helps. They keep living in bliss, just because it doesn't affect them. So many are homeless, and the population is half what it used to be from deaths, and people evacuating and not coming back. It's good that people are trying to make a difference. I want to help, too. When can I?"

"Hmmm, I think the next volunteer date is in early September. A couple weeks away."

"Okay. I'll be there. What about you Nicki?"

"I'm a little preoccupied with Summer School. Good news: I'm passing!" He said with a smile.

"That's great! You might get through high school in 4 years this time!"

"What do you mean, 'this time'?" I asked curiously.

Ashton raised his eyebrows. "Ah, that is a complicated question."

"Snow, you're good at explaining things, why don't you give it a try."

"Okay, well, things used to be easy for us immortals. People used to know what we were and not fear us, but come to us for advice and help. But when Christianity took hold, people saw any magic as a sign of the devil. Even now, people are scared and intrigued by anything magic, and neither of those could work out well for us. We had to hide what we were. But sooner or later, they started to notice that we didn't age. So we had to live our lives to a certain point, then pretend to be our past selfs child. And later on, education started to be seen as an important part of life. At first, people were educated by a private tutor, and age was not paid as much attention to. But then they started arranging grades based on maturity, and placing children there based on their years. So we started at 6th grade, and charmed everyone into thinking they'd known us as children. We've been through this form of high school many, many times. We take some different classes every time, so it isn't THAT boring."

"Yeah. And when PE was introduced, let me tell ya, school got so much more bearable."

"Physical Education sucks, Nicky." Snow said.

"No, it doesn't, Snow. Stop being a bitch," Topaz said with a roll of her eyes.

Snow if course, said nothing rude back.

"So how does marriage work?" I asked.

"Well, we pick ages that could pass as early 20s. I stay 19, Nicky 18, Snow and Topaz have always preferred 17, and our parents are just well aged 30 year olds."

"Huh. I guess it would be easier to be a god, you wouldn't have to worry about living in the human world, knowing people and having them notice your magic."

"I can't even count all the times we've had to erase humans memories. Man, I was goin' out with this one chick in the 70s, she was super hot. Anyway, she saw me levitate the the disco ball and throw it on stupid Tommy Sullivan's head, when no one else was there, and she screamed and said she'd call the police. I couldn't have that kind of press action, so I wiped her memory of that night and told her she was knocked out drunk." Nicky said.

"What happened to Tommy Sullivan?"

"Minor concussion. No biggie. He deserved it, he was a jerk."

"That's cool. There's some people I wish I could do that to."

"Well, I bet you could do worse. Tell me about this Underworld magic you have."

"Oh, it's AWESOME." Snow said.

"I don't want to hear it. Topaz and Hitler was bad enough-" Ashton started.

"YOU SWORE NEVER TO BRING THAT UP AGAIN! YOU HAVE TEASED ME ABOUT THAT FOR SEVENTY YEARS! SHUT UP ABOUT IT ALREADY! IF YOU DONT I WILL IMPALE YOU WITH THE CHANDELIER!"

"Can he still tell us about his powers?" Nicky pleaded.

"Go ahead."

"I can summon armies of the dead, but it really drains me, unless I have anger fueling me. I can shadow travel, which is kind of like teleporting in through the darkness. I can control shadows themselves. I can summon gems and rocks, and bones. Also I can control ghosts."

"Wicked."

"Thanks."

"You should show me how to do that stuff sometime. We can usually replicate demigod powers."

"What do you call the male 'witches'?"

"Warlocks, I suppose. But it's not a term we are very comfortable with."

"What about wizard or sorcerer?"

"Neither are politically correct. A wizard is fictitious, and a sorcerer is just the male version of sorceress, who just has control over the mist."

"So, what do you call yourselves?"

"Eh, we don't really use a tittle. My sisters and my Mom don't mind 'witch'. It's not really a bad name. As long as you don't think about Salem."

"Well, anyway, I don't think I should reveal my secrets. I'd prefer to keep my powers to myself and my siblings, if you don't mind."

"I respect that. I mean, what would you be if other people without your parentage could do the same things you can?"

I found myself a little offended at that remark. "Right, thanks."

"Snow, what do I do about the 3 boys fighting over me?" Garnet asked.

Snow stopped eating her orange chicken. "Well, do you like all 3 of them?"

"Yes. And they're all cute and rich."

"Have you ever had a real conversation with any of them?"

"Well, sort of. I played princess with all of them one time, and Spencer and Blaine were the bad guys who trapped me in a tower, and Ash rescued me."

"Well, I don't know what to tell you from that. They all sound appealing to me."

"You have been so royally fucked up over the years, Snow," Nicky said with a roll of his eyes. "Garnet, pick the one who saved you. I have the feeling he will turn out better."

"Okay, Nicky! I will tell him I pick him over those other guys, tomorrow!"

"Whoa, Garnet. Stay friends with them. You'll want to have guy friends when you're older. You've known those guys since you were a baby! They're family is friends with our family! Don't let them go that easily." Snow advised.

"Okay. You're probably right."

She went back to Sofia the first.

Then, you know when you're watching something on tv, and then this loud earsplitting beep comes up and tells you to switch to the news channel, but you don't care and don't? Well, that happened, but there was a particular reason that made us want to.

We switched to the News Channel, nervous about what was to come.

"-Told there is no sign of the prestiged member of the Lawrence family. Aurora Lawrence was last seen exiting a coffee shop at 4:50 PM today. There are reports of a scuffle at her car, and then she disappeared from the scene. There is some footage of this happening from the security footage outside the store."

The screen flipped to Aurora, smiling, leaving out the door, waving goodbye to someone. She walked over to her car, and opened the door, unaware that someone was creeping up behind her. They grabbed her neck, and I caught a glimpse of his face. No...It couldn't be...

It was the face of Bryce Lawrence.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Nico di Angelo

Return from the dead

We switched off the news show, overwhelmed with shock. They all were frozen with a mixture of worry and fear on their faces. Finally Ashton said, "Garnet, go to bed. We need to talk."

Garnet huffed. "I can handle the information, you nerd."

Nicky stifled a laugh. "She's not wrong."

Ashton glared at his brother. "Garnet, now. Or I'm letting dad put Rodrick on a diet."

She stalked off, muttering under her breath.

"Nico, I take it you know him. In a negative way?"

"Yeah. He-Wait, Snow. Check and see if Garnet's eavesdropping."

Snow left and urged Garnet upstairs.

Once she was safely in her room, Snow returned.

"Okay, anyway, close to the end of the giant wars, I was on a quest with a Roman praetor and a satyr to get the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood to help fight...the Roman demigods. Long story. They sent a guy named Bryce Lawrence, Aurora's cousin, after us. He was a mean guy. Made Octavian look like a saint. He talked about how he tortures animals, his dad was the one who directed the Fields of Punishment, by the way-"

"Wouldn't that make you, like, his master? How has he not been put down by PETA? Or arrested? What happened to the satyr? What-"

"Nicky, don't interrupt," Topaz scolded.

"Bitch, you interrupted me to say that."

"If I hadn't, you would've kept going past the limit of her ransom."

He scowled. "There is no ransom. Just family drama or incestful lust."

"Nicky, she's bait. Isn't that obvious?" Snow pointed out.

Nicky glared at her, and motioned for me to continue.

"Anyway, he was supposed to take Reyna, the praetor, back to the Romans, for her trial and execution. He even cut her face," I paused, trying to slow my anger. I was unsuccessful until I remembered how he died.

"And he was going to...test Hedge's...PAIN TOLERENCE. The creep! And I...turned him into a ghost. I withered his body away until only his soul remained, and I sent that to the Underworld. I have...no idea how he could possibly be alive. It's kind of scaring me."

"Do you think he gained any special powers after being brought back from the dead?" Topaz asked.

"I've never known anything like that to happen. Unless...he came out as a demon."

"Well, isn't _that_ a cheerful thought!" Ashton sneered.

"We are _going_ to save her," Nicky said firmly. "But we don't know where he's keeping her."

"She's the bait, so he would have taken her someplace he knew we would have been able to find. Something of importance to her or us. Maybe someplace isolated? Any ideas?" Snow asked.

"I think it's either the Cemetary or the Katrina wreckage." I said.

"The Cemetary gates are locked at night to keep the homeless out. He wouldn't expect us to go there. Is the wreckage important to any of you?" Ashton asked us.

I felt my cheeks go red. "I go there to think...sometimes. That could be it."

"Okay, let's try there. Someone tell Jared to look after Garnet."

Ashton left to go do that.

After a while he came back and we left in Nicky's red Maserati, and he told us about how many girls he picked up with the car, until Ashton told him to shut up and they argued for the rest of the way there.

When we finally got there Snow made them apologize to each other, and we started looking around. We were in one of the lower class neighborhoods, which had been almost completely destroyed due to it being on low ground.

"What are we gonna do? Yell 'Here Bryce! Here Bryce! And wait for him to come to us?" Nicky said sarcastically.

"He will come to us," Snow said confidently.

Sure enough, we found Bryce Lawrence nearby, chilling on a pile of rubble. Below him was Aurora, tied up and gagged, with tears streaming down her face.

Then I noticed 3 others, a guy with dark hair who looked annoyed, a girl who looked like the Disney princess Belle, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes, and girl with white blonde hair and silver eyes.

"Let them go!" I yelled.

"What do you want Bryce?" Snow asked calmly.

"An interesting question. What _do_ I want?" He mused.

"Cut the crap, Lawrence. Stop trying to act like a deranged psychopath and tell us what you want!" Nicky yelled irritably.

"Very well. I was brought back from the dead by the Titan Prometheus, using a ritual. He said I would be able to kill _you_ , ghost boy, and how could I refuse that," He laughed in a way he must have thought was sinister. "And I needed to bring him those...gorgeous twins, there. And if possible, he wanted me to get rid of the demigods trying to find the Titan offspring and destroy them. I'm not sure how I'll pick them off, they're at Camp Half-Blood, but I'll give it my best shot."

He grinned with his crooked yellow teeth.

"You really think you'll be able to do that? There are 5 of us, and one of you. And each of us is 20 times more powerful than you, on our own. You're just the son of a minor god, and we are superpowerful immortals and a son of one of the most powerful gods." Ashton boasted.

"Well don't you have a big ego!" He laughed. "But I know what you're thinking. None of you want any of them to die, do you?."

"How did you decide who to take?" I asked to stall.

He grinned again, happy to talk about his accomplishment. "Oh, well, with Snow, she and Scarlett are closer. However, Aurora is easier because she knows me, and is easier to take. Also, I didn't really want to mess with Scarlett because of her parantage...And the rest of them are significant others, and Nicky's best friend because his girlfriend dumped him and he wouldn't care," he snickered.

"Yeah, like you'll _ever_ get a girlfriend you ugly son of a-"

"Nicky, let's try to be diplomatic," Snow chided.

"What _exactly-_ are-your-demands?" Topaz said with gritted teeth.

"I want _you_ and your sister to come, willingly, no struggle, to the Titans lair, and I want the son of Hades to die. If you agree to that, I won't kill them."

"If you really think we're going to just-"

"Nicky. I'll go with him. But you are _not_ killing Nico, and you are _not_ taking Topaz."

He sneered. "That's not what I was told to do or what I'm going to do."

"Really? I'm pretty sure killing Nico was just optional, and what he said to persuade you to do this. But if you fail, he will kill you, no questions asked. He won't care too much if you take Topaz, they're not on very good terms with Atlas right now. And if you lay a-single-finger, on ANY of them, I'll have you tortured and killed by Kronos, and no one will care. Not-one-bit."

He moistened his lips, thinking it over. "Okay. Come here." He tied her wrists Behind her back, and cut the rest of them free. I noticed there was a large hole in the ground, half covered by Katrina debri. He was walking toward it.

But before he had even gotten three steps away, Snow was free, and she had him in a chokehold, and was kicking him in the face. His squashed nose was even uglier now. She lifted him in the air, and he erupted in flames.

Once he was nothing but ashes on the ground, she came over and said, "He shouldn't have taken my word for it." I threw my arms around her and kissed her. "Honestly, Nico, did you really think I wouldn't be able to get out of that?"

I felt ashamed with myself, I really thought she was gone. "Yeah. I guess you used magic to get out of those ropes."

"No. I just have flexible wrists. I'm really good at getting untied."

"Oh. I thought he would have put some kind of charm or something."

"No, he's just that stupid," Snow said with a pretty smile.

"Uh, what are we going to do about those mortals?" I asked.

"Oh, they're _not_ mortals,"Ashton said.

I knitted my eyebrows. "Huh?"

"Aurora is a Roman demigod, my friend Brendan Pierce," Nicky pointed to the dark haired guy, "Is the son of Ares. Alice White, Ashton's girlfriend, the blonde, is a demigod. Not sure about her parent, though. And Juliet Lane," he motioned toward the princess, "Topaz's best friend, we will have to wait for her to be claimed," Nicky explained.

"Should we get them to Camp-Half Blood?" I asked.

"Probably. But...I don't think you're going to be able to go to school, Nico," Snow told me gently.

"I know that. We have to stop Kronos' demigods blah blah blah."

"Uh, yeah. Are you guys okay?" Snow asked them.

Aurora looked like she was in shock about watching her cousin die, even though he had tried to kill her. Alice looked relieved, and Brendan looked satisfied.

"Yeah, we're fine," Brendan answered. "That was cool what you did. I always knew there was something weird about your family."

They all laughed, and he asked "Will I be able to do that when I get to Camp Half-Blood?"

"Well, no, but you'll learn how to fight," Topaz answered.

"Do children of Ares have any powers?"

"No, but they're really good at combat," Snow reassured.

"Well that's a bummer," He said sadly.

"Yeah," Nicky admitted.

"What about Aurora? Do we take her to Camp Jupiter?" I asked.

"We take her home," Ashton said, looking at me like I was an idiot.

"Oh, so do we just go now?"

"Yeah," He said, making me feel more stupid.

"Should we bring Scarlett?" I kept going. "He said she was a demigod. A powerful one."

"Yeah. We can pick her up on the way," Snow said, clearly happy that her best friend was coming with us.

We crammed into Nicky's car, and dropped and dropped Aurora off at her house, which was a gated 4 story house painted light blue with lots of balconys that was somewhere in the Garden District.

She said 'thank you' and got out and sprinted across the lawn and rang the doorbell multiple times until someone opened it.

We drove off, and went back over to the house. Nicky explained the situation to their parents, and they all packed their things. We got a bigger vehicle this time, so as to avoid the clown car incident, picked up Scarlett, who had a house slightly smaller than Aurora's, then let the rest of them get their stuff from their huge houses, and speeded to Long Island.

Finally Snow yelled at Nicky to slow down before he killed someone or got us pulled over.

"Sheesh, calm down, sis," He muttered."Don't call me 'sis' Nicky."

"Kay, Snowball."

She rolled her eyes and started talking to Scarlett.

Even at a slightly slower speed, we got there in about 2 hours, probably because of some charm Nicky was doing. Nicky dropped us off at the hill, and drove away as fast as he had before Snow told him to slow down.

It was about 3 AM when we got there, so it was dark and everyone was in their cabins. We had to wake up Chiron to tell him that we had new campers.

"Oh, dear, this is so sudden. Where do we put them?"

"Well, they said Brendan was the son of Ares," Juliet suggested. "Your cabins are arranged by what god is their parent, right? Put him in the Ares cabin."

Chiron chuckled. "Enjoy your innocence while you can, dear girl. If we sent him to the Ares Cabin at this time of night, he would be mutilated before breakfast. No, best just to let them stay in the here, in the Big House until they are claimed."

"Oh, you have bedrooms above?" Alice asked.

"Ah, well, there's only one available, so why don't we let you three girls take that, and Brendan can have the couch in the living room."

"Sure," Brendan said, though he didn't look happy about it.

"Oh, and be careful of Seymour. Keep your limbs as far from him as you can," Chiron advised.

"Who is Seymour," Brendan asked, looking around as if there was an enemy to fight.

"The stuffed leopard on the wall," Chiron explained.

"What?" Brendan looked disappointed.

"Well, you'd better get some rest. You've had a long night, and you have a big day ahead of you!"


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Crazy dreams

Juliet Lane

I was so overwhelmed with everything that had happened in the last 48 hours.

First I'd been kidnapped by a guy with crooked teeth, and held hostage in an underground room for what felt like weeks, and then I'm rescued by Topaz, some of her family, and some guy wearing a lot of black.

The next thing I know, I'm whisked off to some mysterious camp where apparently they mutilate each other. Isn't that nice!

After Topaz and Snow left, I was left with a girl I hardly knew. Her name is Scarlett, I think. I've seen her at Topaz's house when I go over there to hang out. We left Brendan downstairs, who looked pretty pissed off, and followed Chiron to the room. There was only one bed, so I agreed to let Scarlett have it, because honestly, she kind of scared me.

She was very pretty, sure, but she had this atmosphere around her that reminded me of my older brother, who liked to hit me when he was angry. Friendly enough, likable even, but reflected that they would not hesitate to hurt you.

I made a nest of the blankets a Nymph had brought me, and fell fast asleep.

I dreamed that I was in a palace. It was beautiful and serene, but it felt evil. Most everything was done in dark colors, and I swear I saw blood smeared on the floor. I heard voices, so I followed them.

There were two people, a tall man with a hooded face, and a boy about 16 with

It was this throne room, but the two people there were avoiding the thrones. They were standing next to them, probably because they weren't supposed to sit there.

"You've already failed me once, Maxx!"

"But, sir, I'm sure this time I could-"

"Silence you insolent boy! Your father may be Atlas, but _I_ am in charge here! However, I will allow you to help on the quest to retrieve our master's son. He is young, but he will be an excellent asset."

"Of course my lord. What shall I do?"

"Not now, you idiot! We have to wait a little longer! He needs to pass his 14th birthday. Otherwise he won't be respected anymore than one of our small worms!"

He said "worm" like a tittle instead of an animal.

"Yes, my lord. When is his birthday?"

"October 14th. You and the others will go the day after. Let him enjoy his birthday and his innocence while he can."

"Very wise, Lord Prometheus."

"I know! Get on with your training!"

"Wait! What about the lovers?"

"The lovers?"

"That's what everyone calls those gorgeous twins we're trying to capture. The ones that escaped. And that tried to kill us."

"They didn't try to kill us. That upstart son of Hades did. Though Snow came close to killing Grey."

"Which one is Snow?"

"She's the one with the death eyes."

He apparently knew what that meant. I didn't They just looked purple to me.

"And my Father?"

He waved his hand. "We will release him from his burden soon enough. Kronos has decided to forgive him for his recent failure. He will be the general of the Titan army again. We need to zero in on someone strong enough to hold the burden temporarily. After we defeat the gods, I want that... _Zeus_ to hold it." The name was filled with rage.

"Indeed a good choice. The gods need to be punished."

"Yes. Now go!"

He bowed and left.

Prometheus paced for a good 10 minutes, then his eyes locked on a huge golden box engraved with pictures I couldn't make out.

Then he turned around and I could swear he was looking straight at me. I woke with a start.


End file.
